The original club in Bournemouth was at
Boscombe St John's Institute in 1890. This became Boscombe FC, joining
the local county league and by 1902 the team played at King's Park
next to present ground at Dean Court. Mr Cooper-Dean gave the club
some waste ground on which to develop their home and because it was
neighbouring a field of cherry orchards, the club adopted the
Cherries as a nickname. They named the ground after their benefactor and wore cherry red.
Joining the Southern League in 1920 and
then the Third Division South in 1923-4, Bournemouth and Boscombe
Athletic FC won their first league point in a 1-1 draw with Swindon on
25th August 1923. The club holds the record for the
longest continuous membership of the Third Division, now of course
they are top of the Championship.
With Reading away tonight, AFC Bournemouth
hopes to maintain their place at the top of the Division with promotion to the
Premier League in its sight.
The club began the 2008-9 season 17
points adrift and were a day within liquidation three times in six
months. Chairman, Jeff Mostyn, saved the club and now hopes to see
his investment bring the small south coast team into the top league in
the country.
Ed Howe the manager at 37 is young and has been at the
club since he was 10 years old. He kept the club in the Football
League in 2009 when they had only 7 points after 22 games. Promotions
followed in 2010 and 2013 and now end of season matches against Reading, Sheffield Wednesday (h),
Bolton (h) and Charlton (a) have to be overcome to reach the
pinnacle.
Backed now by a Russian, Max Demin,
there is financial stability, the club has met the FL Financial Fair
Play requirements with a loss of no more than £8 million last year.
QPR's was nearly £70 m last season to gain promotion. With Ed Howe at the helm and a positive feeling through out the seaside town, what could go wrong?
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