Saturday showed the importance of parachute payments

EVEN the most optimistic among the City faithful, will not have expected to get much from an away trip to Bournemouth’s Vitality stadium. The Cherries sit second in the league and you only had to look at some of the players on their bench, the likes of Gary Cahill, Todd Cantwell, Jamal Lowe, Ben Pearson and Siriki Dembele, to recognise the difference in quality of player between the two sides.

There has been a fair bit of discussions on forums this week around the fairness of parachute payments and Saturday, for me, emphasised just how uneven the playing field is for those with payments and those without. That’s not making excuses, and it isn’t all about that, but there can be little doubt the statistics support the fact those that come down from the Premier League and receive payments for a three-year period have an unfair advantage.

City shocked their hosts by taking an early lead through Rob Atkinson’s header from a good corner delivery from Matty James, and from that point on for the majority of the half, Nigel Pearson’s team were forced to defend. Bournemouth were just so comfortable on the ball and always seemed to have runners and options. The team defended manfully but where we let ourselves down, and it’s a recurring theme, was the constant ease that we turned over possession. We defended our goal well; we would win the ball back and break away but would then give the ball away with a sloppy pass or by making the wrong option. I counted five times in the first half where we had a breakaway two on two or three on three and didn’t take advantage of it. As a result, we were constantly on the back foot.

It did look like we had weathered the storm, with Robbie Cundy, in particular impressing at the back. Cundy made one tackle which was brilliantly timed. I really like the look of Cundy and hope that the club look to keep him for next season.

However, just when it looked as though we may get to half-time with a lead, we conceded. We couldn’t clear the ball far enough and one inciteful pass found Zemura who played in a ball across the box and Solanke’s first-time effort was too much for Dan Bentley. City had defended so well but you couldn’t deny Bournemouth deserved the equaliser, or that they ended up worthy winners.