MARVE: WE PUT THE PRESSURE ON

11:00am Sunday 28th September 2008

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By Neil Perrett »

MIDFIELD powerhouse Marvin Bartley believes Cherries are reaping rewards for their new-found pressure play.

Bartley paved the way for Cherries' first home league win of the season when he netted the opener in their 3-1 victory over Darlington yesterday.

His 15th-minute effort, together with a Neil Austin own goal, both came following mistakes by Quakers defenders Steve Foster and Alan White.

The pair cheaply squandered possession in the lead-up to both goals, with Bartley convinced Cherries must take some of the credit for the errors.

He told the Daily Echo: "Some people might say we scored as a result of the mistakes but we put pressure on them to make those mistakes.

"If you put pressure on any player at any level, he's going to make a mistake and that's how we got in on a couple of occasions.

"We are closing teams down a lot better now and putting pressure on them and making it harder for them to get out."

Bartley was presented with a simple tap-in after a shot by Jeff Goulding, who had been gifted the ball by Foster, was parried into his path by goalkeeper Simon Brown.

"I thought Jeff should have passed to me earlier," said Bartley. "I spoke to him about it and said I would have killed him if it hadn't fallen for me!

"I used to play with him at Hayes and he didn't pass when he was there either. I told him it had to stop but he just laughed and said that as he's a striker, he wasn't going to pass!"

On a more serious note, Bartley was keen to defend himself after a challenge with Darlington midfielder Jason Kennedy had prompted tempers to flare during the closing stages.

The visitors felt Bartley had jumped in with both feet, although the Cherries man claimed Kennedy was in the wrong.

"I just went to win the ball and I thought he went over the top of me," said Bartley. "I don't mind a firm tackle because I go in wholeheartedly myself but he went over the ball.

"I would never set out to hurt somebody because I wouldn't want anybody to do that to me. I go in hard and I go in to win the ball."

Darlington manager David Penney felt the biggest turning point in the match came when an effort by David Poole was disallowed for offside on the stroke of half-time.

Penney said: "A couple of mistakes in defence cost us dearly and we need to be much tighter. We gave Bournemouth two soft goals but the match hinged, in my view, on a goal for us which was disallowed for offside. My players all believe David Poole was not offside and I did not see any Bournemouth players complain when he put the ball in the net."