10 things............
Bournemouth
1 Until the early 19th century there were only miles and miles of sand and wild moorland. Then football arrived from the north and gave them something to do in winter.
2 A side known as Boscombe St John's Institute became big in town by 1899, so dropped the reverential church bit in favour of heathen FC.
3 JE Cooper-Dean set up their very own Court next to Boscombe's King's Park in 1910. He also invented a right royal roundabout on the Wessex Way to a Queen of a seaside resort.
4 In 1923 as a Southern League club, Boscombe got elected to FL status and suddenly it was neighbouring Bournemouth's name on the fixture list.
5 Nothing much happened at Dean Court until 29000 day trippers arrived to see Busby Babes luckily win a competitive FA Cup lotto of a game in 1957. We don't actually know if they all went on the pier first.
6 Seventy odd years of mainly mediocre existence changed when red and black stripes of AC Milan were adopted and an AFC prefix announced some ripe PR cherry picking at San Siro of the south coast.
7 By the eighties, a back in the fourth division Bournemouth were desperate for a new harvest at Dean Court orchards. So they signed George Best, although he badly needed to shed a few fruit baskets of extra stones.
8 Harry Redknapp eventually had ten years at the club. Yes, he only started as caretaker and used to lick boots before sweeping changes in the Board and dressing rooms.
9 In 1994 league reorganisation meant five teams would be relegated to lowest tiers. Bottom team Bournemouth somehow survived, proving New Year resolutions can become Spring time revelations.
10 Home matches in 2001 were housed at Dorchester, while their new stadium was built. You then found Brighton beach end was well off-side as the pitch also turned northwards.
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