Midway through November Bournemouth’s points tally still resembles an Alan Davies score from an episode of QI and last weekend our miserable season plunged new depths.
With the team still on minus three points, they travelled up to Accrington Stanley and suffered a demoralising three-nil defeat, leaving us still 12 points from safety.
Fortunately I was not one of those Cherries fans who made the 550-mile round trip only to find the side three-nil down after less than half an hour.
After the game a few fans understandably vented their frustration at the players as they left the pitch and our midfielder Danny Hollands had to be restrained as he took exception to the abuse they were subjected to.
It was uncharacteristic of Hollands, who is a model professional who has captained the side in the past, and he has since apologised.
He recognised the huge commitment the supporters had made to follow the team and that they had every right to be angry when the players produce a performance that is not up to standard.
As the crisis spirals at Dean Court and relegation begins to look more of a certainty than a possibility, boss Jimmy Quinn seems to be obsessed with his search for a new striker to turn the club’s season around.
He has just brought in Michael Symes, a former Everton trainee who played alongside Wayne Rooney at youth team level, on loan from Shrewsbury and says he is still hoping to bring in another front man.
By my reckoning Symes was the eighth forward to play up front for Bournemouth this season, not counting Sammy Igoe who has played as a withdrawn striker and new signing Alan Connell who has only made the bench to date due to injury.
None of these strikers has exactly impressed but surely Quinn has to start questioning whether it is the forwards themselves who are the problem or simply that we are not a side that creates many chances.
Brett Pitman is our top scorer so far this season with just four goals and, while his inconsistency and apparent lethargy may draw abuse from a number of Cherries fans, I still maintain if he plays the whole campaign, Quinn manages to keep him motivated and he is given decent service, he will score 15 to 20 goals at this level.
I think the greatest area of concern is the wing-backs in Quinn’s 3-5-2 system, with ageing Lee Bradbury and a low-on-confidence Warren Cummings starting the majority of games.
The pair simply don’t provide the energy up and down the flanks that the system badly needs and the majority of crosses come from so deep they are bread and butter for the big lumps of defenders that are commonplace in League Two.
I know goals make all the difference in football, but I think it’s time Quinn stopped focusing on new forwards to bring into the club and starting working out ways to create chances that our current crop of strikers can feed off.
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