Bournemouth face critical week as they look to get season back on track

Bournemouth return to the Vitality Stadium this evening as they welcome Championship strugglers Sheffield Wednesday, looking to get back into form after losing three league games in succession for the first time this season.

Defeats at Derby and Reading as well as a home loss to Luton Town have seen Jason Tindall’s side slip all the way down to sixth, eight points off the automatic promotion places going into the final 20 matches.

Having had such a drop off in form, the Cherries will also be looking over their shoulders with Middlesbrough, Blackburn Rovers and Bristol City all within three points.

However, they have the perfect chance to return to form with back to back visits against Championship strugglers, starting with the Owls who have won just seven times this season and netted a division-low 16 times in their first 25 matches before Birmingham City visit at on Saturday.

There has been some positive news behind the scenes going into the game, with former Real Madrid and England defender Jonathan Woodgate joining Tindall’s coaching staff on a deal until the end of the season after Graeme Jones moved to the North-East to join Steve Bruce at Newcastle United.

Woodgate does have experience in coaching, having managed his hometown club Middlesbrough to a 17th placed finish last season, staying up by five points so should help the Cherries particuarly in a defensive aspect having conceded five goals in their last three matches.

The Owls are still without a permanent manager with Neil Thompson still in caretaker charge of the club following the sacking of Tony Pulis but has made a real impact, winning three of his four league matches in control, including against Middlesbrough and most recently Preston North End.

In the meeting between the two sides earlier in the season, it was the Yorkshire club who claimed a 1-0 victory which in turn ended the Cherries’ unbeaten start to the season in the tenth match of the campaign following a Steve Cook red card.

Tindall highlighted that there is a lack of confidence among his group when he spoke to the Bournemotuh Echo following the 3-1 defeat to promotion rivals Reading on Friday evening.

“I think there’s a lack of confidence. It’s a young group of players. In a sense it’s a new team that haven’t played a huge amount of games together.

“We’re in a bad moment at the minute with the last few results we’ve had, but it’s down to ourselves to get ourselves out of it and bounce back and get results as quickly as possible.”

Ben Pearson and Jack Wilshere have both arrived during the January window to add some extra depth and quality in the midfield so should help the club look to get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

There is a huge chance for Tindall’s side to get back into form with them facing five of the current bottom six in their next five matches, games you would suspect they will be targeting to win, with the likes of Watford, Bristol City and Swansea City on the agenda in the weeks following this.

If they can come out of this little run with a series of strong results then it will power them right back into the mix for automatic promotion and will go a long way to getting some much needed confidence back amongst the squad.

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