Chris Hargreaves then had two chances, from the resulting corner, he forced Stewart into another good save, before shooting just over the crossbar moments later. The home side took the lead in the 32nd minute, Keith Welch raced out of his goal to intercept a long ball, the Cobblers keeper just missed it and Warren Feeney rolled the ball into the empty net.
Six minutes before half time, Feeney skipped past Spedding on the right hand side, the Cobblers left back ran across his path to try to retrive the ball and the Cherries player hit the floor. Although contact seemed very minimal, referee Mr Richards showd Spedding his second yellow card and Town were down to ten men. It seemed a harsh booking and was made worse by Feeney giving one of his team mates a high five as the card was produced.
Although the Cobblers had a mountain to climb, they levelled on the stroke of half time, Marco Gabbidini drilled the ball across the face of goal and Paul McGregor knocked it into an empty net at the far post.
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Unfortunately the Cobblers fell to pieces in the second half and it was the hosts who took full advantage of the situation. In the 54th minute Tidall curled in a beautiful 20 yard strike that gave Welch no chance. This lifted the Cherries further and after 63 minutes it was three. Elliott's low cross beat everyone in the penalty area and Holmes was left with the simple task of tapping the ball into an open net.
If the third was a soft goal to concede from the Cobblers point of view, the forth was worse, Burgess and Welch had a breakdown in their communications, which resulted in the Cobblers defender headed the ball past his own keeper into the net. Feeney raced in to slide the ball into the net, in an attempt to claim the goal.
The game was over when Derek Asamoah, Sam Parkin and Ian Sampson were intorduced into the game and to rub salt into the wounds, Stephen Purches drove in Bournemouth's 5th in the 90th minute.
Editor's View
Terrible is the only way to decribe the Cobblers' second half performance! Everything the players tried on the pitch went wrong, but it needs to be forgotten in order to turn it around again. The major gripe of the game was Warren Feeney's conduct in the Spedding sending off incident. He made a meal of the challange and then celebrated with one of his team mates when the card was produced. This is totally unacceptable in the sportmanship of the game and ruined the match! No sour grapes though, the Cobblers were very, very poor in the second half and deserved to be beaten!
Ref Watch
Mr Richards was quick to book Cobblers players but didn't book Cherries players for similar incidents. Not very consistant!!
Cobblers Man of the Match
A very hard decision on a poor day, but Paul McGregor was the best player on the pitch and was unluckly to be taken off.
Ground
What a change! The new look Dean Court is fantastic! A brilliant view for away fans from the East Stand at the side of the pitch and a very reasonable £12.50 enterance fee. The atmosphere was terrific as well and the food was not too bad.