After a great opening game we face last years reigning champions of the youth division who dominated by a mile so its going to be a great contest to see how this rebuilt Bournemouth side can handle them. We want to build on the win last round and if we can secure points against Everton it will be a big step in the right direction! We are down 2 players after red cards for Diaz and Day in the cup competition but we should have enough cover to still field a strong squad for this fixture
After a losing start we need to perform better when we're at home. I think our team overall is decent but we lack depth and secondaries on our players. I feel we're able to get results on more regular occasions but we also need to understand that we're not the team we're used to. Too many players has left and we've found it hard to replace them. But playing at home should be a good chance to get our first win of the season.
Off to our local rivals and a chance to take on the Baggies. It's a rare situation where we face a side whose U23s are almost as good as their first team and that means it's never easy to play against their kids. Neil is a good manager who gets both his sides playing well.
The sides met four times last season with us winning three of the games including the two over at their place. So this gives us some optimism but we came unstuck enough times last season to know not to take anything for granted.
The early games of the season suggest Neil is going to be a little less predictable this time around so we will have to think a little bit more for this one. They have a full strength side to pick from and in White and Gilbert have 2 players we'd love to own. They also have the best U23 GK going so this won't be an easy game to score in.
We're also at full strength and continue rotating to get everyone minutes and try and keep them all in the squad for as long as possible. I suspect this will be a tight affair - just hopefully one we can come out on top in
We take on the Gunners at home for our second consecutive home league game. We're unsure as to what is going to happen as the Arsenal manager said he wasn't going to bother with u23s this season but then did in the cup in midweek. So we're unsure what they are likely to do. I suspect he will start bothering now and so we need to be very careful over our team selection. They don't have a massive squad but do have a bit of quality and are at full strength with enough to do us damage if we're not careful. They went with a really attacking lineup in the week and it led to a high scoring game so we want to make sure we don't get caught up in that kind of lottery
Having said that, we're at home and should have a slightly better side so it should also be up to us to dictate play. We have a full side to pick from after Ben Stevens shook off the injury that forced him off in the week so we'll be able to go strong and hopefully get another three points.
We have a big squad but not much quality so its a balancing act with a lot of games on at the moment. We are in the market to strengthen but not been able to go too far yet. Hopefully there will be some more business over the next week or so to make this side a contender.
We are able to name unchanged side should we choose to do so with all first choice players coming through unscathed.
Our new look team did pretty well in the opening fixture of the season and we will look to carry that on here.
Saved penalties for a living and reffed for a bit.
Currently run EFLO, CoE and OFMC
