Cherries defeated at Havant

AFC Bournemouth lost their second match of the pre-season campaign on Wednesday night.

After enjoying free scoring matches against New Milton, Winchester and Basingstoke, the Cherries only defeat had come at Poole Town, but that changed last night as Paul Groves side lost 3-1 to Havant & Waterlooville at Westleigh Park.

Groves continued to mix up his squad, but for the first time during pre-season, injury worries have begun to have an affect on selection.

Josh McQuoid picked up an ankle injury during Tuesday's game against Basingstoke, while Frank Demouge, Donal McDermott and Mark Molesley all missed out through knocks.

Groves named Darryl Flahavan in goal, with Simon Francis, Steve Cook, Miles Addison and trialist Jonathan Meades in defence.

Shaun MacDonald, Josh Wakefield, Steven Gregory and Lewis Grabban in midfield, with Steve Fletcher and Wesley Thomas in attack.

However Steve Cook then injured his back during the warm up and was a late withdrawal, before a ball had been kicked in anger and was replaced by Baily Cargill.

Then Steve Fletcher suffered a dead leg after just 15 minutes from a dangerous tackle from behind.

Moments after the heavy challenge on Fletcher, Wesley Thomas latched onto a long ball from defender Baily Cargill and put the visitors ahead. It proved to be the only goal of the game for the Cherries, as the home side began to control the game once Paul Groves began to introduce his development squad to the game.

At half time, Ryan Case, Dan Strugnell and Harrison Gilkes, replaced Francis, Addison and Thomas, while on the hour mark, Jamal Bajandouh, Jayden Stockley and Clive Makoni replaced Grabban, MacDonald and Gregory.

Which left Flahavan as the only member of Groves' first team on the pitch for the final half an hour of the game.

Just minutes after the changes and the home side were level, Sahr Kabba with the goal.

The former Weston-super-Mare attacker then provided an assist for Ollie Palmer, to put H&W into the lead with 20 minutes remaining.

Victory for the home side was confirmed when Kabba scored his second of the game with less than 10 minutes remaining.

After the game Groves told the Daily Echo...

'...it wasn`t what you want in pre-season with regards to looking to start the season with a full quota of players and people coming out of games with a level of fitness and playing in a game that is probably played in a proper manner.

"As the game progressed, it started to become a little bit silly with respect to the physical contact that was allowed to be put on players.

"The biggest, and probably the physically strongest player (Fletcher), ended up coming off because somebody had gone into the back of him. I was under the impression that type of thing had been outlawed three or four years ago."

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