AFC Bournemouth have now played 24 of their allocated 46 matches, and are now just over halfway through the Championship season following the weekend loss to Luton Town.

Jason Tindall’s side are well placed in the second tier, currently in third on 42 points, although Brentford, Reading and Watford all have the opportunity to climb above them if they were to win their games in hand.

As a result, they sit four points behind Swansea City having played the same number of games as the South Wales club following some poor recent results and are a further four points back from leaders Norwich City.

The race for promotion is set to be an interesting one and a battle which goes all the way to the final day when the Cherries host Stoke City at the Vitality Stadium.

In recent weeks, Tindall’s men have struggled at both ends of the pitch, winning just one of their last five in the competition.

It’s time to take a look at how the Cherries’ start to the season has unfolded.

September and October

The Championship season began for the club with a home visit of Blackburn Rovers. Arnaut Danjuma scored a brilliant late winner to get the Cherries off to the perfect start.

September continued to be a fruitful month win a solid away point at Middlesbrough before beating title favourites Norwich 1-0 thanks to Danjuma to start the season off brilliantly with seven points out of nine.

October began with a brilliant 3-1 win at Coventry City thanks to a Dan Gosling brace which put the team one point clear at the time before a succession of draws against QPR, Cardiff City and Watford saw the season fall slightly off track but the unbeaten start was protected.

Bournemouth ended the run of draws with a late win over Bristol City, courtesy of a goal from Danjuma to move the club back into the top two.

October concluded on Halloween with a 1-1 draw against Derby County. Rodrigo Riquelme scored his first goal for the club after Graeme Shinnie’s opener.

November, December and New Year.

The new month started on the back foot with a defeat by Sheffield Wednesday, the first time the Cherries’ had been beaten in the league since relegation.

However, this sparked a great run of results which saw the south coast club beat Birmingham City, Reading and Nottingham Forest before a 2-2 draw at Rotherham United. The Cherries occupied an automatic promotion place ahead of the busy December schedule.

December got off to a very frustrating start though, a 3-2 midweek loss to mid table Preston North End, despite Bournemouth fighting back from a three goal setback.

Despite the loss, Tindall’s side responded superbly seeing off Barnsley 4-0 at Oakwell after two goals in each half helped move them back to the summit of the Championship table, ahead of Norwich City, although the Canaries did have a game in hand.

A solid point was picked up at promotion rivals Swansea City before two important home wins in the space of four days were secured, firstly seeing off Huddersfield Town 5-0 before Wycombe Wanderers were beaten 1-0 thanks to Junior Stanislas.

This was followed by a goalless draw at Luton Town before they saw their Boxing Day clash with Millwall postponed following a Covid-19 outbreak in the Lions’ squad. They succumbed to a 2-1 defeat against Brentford despite leading through Solanke.

The new year began in the league with a brilliant away win at Stoke City, before five points were dropped in the space of five days following a 1-1 draw with Millwall and a 1-0 defeat to Luton Town.

Reflection

This has left the club struggling for form and goals of late and now sit four points adrift of the top two, with a vital clash with relegation threatened Derby County tomorrow night.

Looking at the fixtures in the coming weeks, you sense the game against the Rams is one Tindall’s side need to take advantage of before a trip to promotion rivals Reading and the FA Cup tie against Crawley Town.

Winnable games against Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday kick start next month so there are definitely great chances to make up ground on those above them, and they need to start turning a lot of these draws into wins if they want to return to the Premier League.

The nine draws picked up so far are only eclipsed by Millwall (11) so it’s imperative that the club start becoming more consistent as the season continues.