‘LITTLE old Bournemouth’ has been punching above its weight in the Premier League for much of the past decade – and now a lifelong fan is hoping a new song will do the same.

Musician Tom Wilkins has released his song ‘Little Old Bournemouth, Premier League’ and has aspirations of it reaching the UK top 200 charts.

The 34-year-old has long been a published poet and recently turned his hand to music.

“I've always had this big theory that football songs, they follow the same sort of genre where you've got the overdub commentary, the fan chants and it was always such an alien concept to me when music takes many forms and there's many different types of football fans,” Tom said.

“I originally started writing the song as a bit of a kind of reminiscing piece.

(Image: Tom Wilkins)

“My childhood watching Bournemouth with the likes of Stevie Robinson, Steve Fletcher, Eddie Howe and Jason Brissett and all the players that I grew up on.

“Then as I was writing it, I realised, you know what, I'm just as excited in the lead up to this season and in the lead up to matches with the players we have now, so why do it in the past and why not focus on the players now?

“It just gradually evolved and, as Bournemouth fans, we like the moniker of little old Bournemouth, we use it quite ironically now, but it's still a tag we have, and how we refer to ourselves a little bit and how other clubs seem to refer to us.

“So, it's quite good to use it in the ironic context of ‘little old Bournemouth Premier League’.”

Tom grew up in Southampton but has been a Cherries fan for as long as he can remember, thanks to his stepdad, attending his first game in 1991 and becoming a Junior Cherries season ticket holder.

He said it has ‘always been Bournemouth’ since his first game aged two at Dean Court.

(Image: Tom Wilkins)

Jim Frevola, president of business, has congratulated him on the song and said the club is looking at the possibility of playing it at the Vitality Stadium.

This, Tom said, was ‘beyond his wildest dreams’ from when he started writing it.

“I was a mascot years ago and I remember having a little kick about on the pitch with Ian Cox and did a little slide tackle on him, which at the time I think I was six,” Tom said.

“I thought, this is good as it gets. But I think hearing my song played in the stadium would probably top that.”

The musician, now based in Cardiff, said reaction so far has been brilliant – and he doesn’t think it will take much to get the track into the top 200, but he will need help from Cherries fans worldwide.

The song can be streamed on all major platforms.