It started off with interest coming from Ian Holloway's Blackpool, a team that had been linked with Pitman from early on in the summer, but nothing came of it, the young striker turning down the chance to take on the Premier League due to an inability to agree personal terms with the club, mooted to be down to Blackpool's unwillingness to offer any player more than £10,000 per week, still likely to be far more than what he was on at Bournemouth. Soon after the deal fell through there was to be more interest, this time coming from Championship club Bristol City and it ended up with a move for Pitman, for an undisclosed fee.
The Jersey-born striker set his stall out early, aiming to emulate Nicky Maynard, a player who moved to City from Crewe last summer, wuickly becoming a fans favourite, tieing up the clubs top scorers award as well as taking the vote for the Football League goal of the season for an effort against QPR. Pitman told BBC Points West:
"I want to challenge myself at a higher level and that's what I've come here to do.
"Both the gaffer [Keith Millen] and Steve Wigley are very good coaches, I'm led to believe, they can help me improve even more than I managed to do at Bournemouth."
Back to Bournemouth and it has been two games since Pitman departed and three since he last played for the club and in that time the Cherries have managed a win, a draw and a penalty loss. At first it looks like a particularly average run of results but those games have featured nine goals, six of them for Bournemouth and all have seen the south coast side dominate.
After the season started with a loss against Charlton and a dumping out of the cup thanks to neighbours Southampton some may have been looking down but a 5-1 home rout of promotion condenders Peterborough turned those frowns upside down, in part thanks to that man Pitman slamming three past Joe Lewis. Since Pitman's departure Northwrn Ireland youth international Josh McQuoid seems to have taken the mantle, scoring three goals in two games, both of them in the league. But in my opinion Bournemouth's strengths lie at the back.
The goalkeeper, Shwan Jalal, for a start has had much praise for his performances last season, helping the Cherrie's to automatic promotion from League 2. The centre back pairing are also just as strong. Ryan Garry, a product of the Arsenal youth system would have had a career higher up the league waiting for him had it not been for a long term shin injury and next to him will be Jason Pearce. Rising through the ranks at Portsmouth Pearce was unable to make it into the full first team and joined Bournemouth in August 2007. Since then the defender has never looked back, putting in 137 appearances for Bournemouth, a remarkable feat for a player who joined the club at the age of 19.
There should, however, be no problem scoring goals. Aside from Josh McQuoid Bournemouth have veteran Steve Fletcher, Michael Symes and Steve Lovell to lead the line, as well as exciting winger Mark Pugh who finished as Hereford's top scorer last season with 13 goals. Add to that the midfield abilities of Danny Hollands and Mark Molesley and you should find yourself a tidy enough side. The challenge, though, will be maintaing the form that they have shown in their last three games.
After an electric start to last season saw the Cherries topping League 2 at the end of September before things began to stagnate. Dodgy form between January and mid April saw Bournemouth drop out of the automatic promotion places at one points before a run of four straight wins was enough to seal second place, ten points behind Notts County. League 1 will prove to be a tougher challenge, there is less likelihood of teams being bunched together as they were towards the top of League 2 so once you've found yourself on a poor run of form it's far more difficult to get out of. Add to that the likes of Southampton, Charlton and Sheffield Wednesday in the division and things can get quite hairy, it's not the sort of division where anyone can and will beat anyone else like last seasons League 2.
One thing that Bournemouth can count on, though, is manager Eddie Howe. He's shown what he can do, keeping the club up in his first season before the promotion and has already shown that he knows how to outwit defences at this level. It is thought that he turned down the job at Peterborough last season but the real challenge will come now. He has been placed at 10/1 by the bookmakers to be the next manager at Southampton and though this may be a little bit of a long shot you can expect him to be pushing his way to the front of the queue if Bournemouth keep their current form up.
So all, it seems, is not lost for Bournemouth. The squad has a look of 16th place about it, if you can say such things, and with a bit of luck the club should be looking at another term in League 1. That being said, football isn't played on paper.
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