AFC Bournemouth League One promotion: 10 year anniversary

We have spoken with some of the players who played big roles in that League One campaign, and have a series of pieces to bring you, looking back at some of the key moments from the season.

Cherries legend Brett Pitman returned to the club midway through the campaign, going on to score 19 times in 26 appearances.

Remarkably, nine of those goals came in an eight-game run that secured Cherries’ promotion to the second tier, with victory over Carlisle United on this day in 2013…

“AT THE time, the team's playing well and I was scoring, and throughout my career I kind of been a bit like that. Once I start scoring, I could go on a good run.”

Scoring goals comes as naturally to Brett Pitman as breathing, the Jersey-born striker boasting the X-factor every manager wants from their forwards.

Simply put, he is a goalscorer.

A frequent contributor after re-joining Cherries on loan in November from Bristol City, Pitman’s perfect form coincided with a club-record winning streak, eight wins that secured League One promotion.

Five straight defeats in a row had seen Cherries drop out of the play-offs, but Pitman's winner away at Stevenage stopped the rot and started a run of a new kind.

Further goals against Oldham, Bury, Colchester, Scunthorpe, Notts County, Shrewsbury and Carlisle United followed, with Pitman grabbing the winner in half of the eight games.

“Obviously you feel confident," Pitman tells the Daily Echo. 

"Playing week in, week out obviously makes a massive difference.

"And once you get a little bit of confidence that you score one, it kind of just works out you keep scoring, really.

“It's hard to explain. 

“But obviously it helps the team were doing well at that point. I think in the end, we just had too much for teams.

“We were fitter than them, we were stronger than them, we were better with the ball, we were more organised than them.

“So we were just better altogether than the vast majority of teams.

“We'd almost go on the pitch and the game was not far off won before in that run, just because we knew what we were doing, and we knew that we were better than most teams.”

One moment that summed up the rich vein of form Pitman found himself in was his sublime strike away at Shrewsbury.

After dispatching a penalty in the first-half, the striker found himself with space 25-yards-out in the second period.

He then proceeded to laser an effort into the top-right corner, sending Cherries on their way to an eventual 3-0 win.

Pitman shared: “That goal in particular, I think I took it off Marc Pugh.

“I remember the wind going from right to left, the way we were kicking.

“So I kind of used the wind, and I hit it quite nicely and ended up going pretty much straight where I wanted it to go.

“It was nice.

“Like I said, at that point, it was a real enjoyment to play for the team and playing with the lads just because we had so many good players from all over the pitch that could hurt the opposition.

“We were in a real good spot at that point.”

One week after the win over Shrewsbury, Cherries would be promoted with a game to spare.

Pitman scored in the 90th minute to secure a 3-1 win over Carlisle United on the south coast.

Prior to the game, Cherries were itching to get the job done.

• Part one: Cherries 'all over the place' as Groves loses his job
• Part two: 'As soon as Ed came back, the whole place changed' - Howe return ignites season
• Part three: 'Ed never found out!' - Losing run threatens promotion bid, as loanees are drafted in

“I don't think nerves,” reflects Pitman when asked if there were any doubts before the game.

“I think you always want to get it done as quickly as possible, just because you never know what's going to happen. And I think at the time, I don't think even if we won, we were guaranteed to be promoted.

“You just want to get it done. We knew at the time, we obviously had a tough game at Tranmere in the last game of the season, and it's always nice to do it at home, but first and foremost, you want to achieve what you set out to achieve.

“You want it done as quickly as possible, and then you can enjoy the rest of it.”

For defender Simon Francis, there were comparisons to be drawn with another famous night at Dean Court.

He shared: “It probably resembles a bit of that night against Bolton (clinching promotion to the Premier League in 2015), which I didn’t actually play in.

“But a sense of knowing it was down to us, but backing ourselves and the belief we had and the quality that it will be absolutely fine. We’ll go out and almost blow them away.

“Ed was good like that. He wouldn’t put too much pressure on those occasions.

“It would just be keeping it as calm and simple as possible.

“Tom (Elphick) would carry that message on in the dressing room and it would just be play our game, do what we’ve done throughout the season when we’ve been on good runs, everything will come together.

“And it certainly did in that game.”

As Pitman pointed out, victory over Carlisle did not secure promotion – but a few hours later, Brentford were held by already-relegated Hartlepool, allowing celebrations to get underway back at Dean Court.

“We were watching it in the dressing room,” captain Tommy Elphick recalled.

“There was quite a lot of commotion in the dressing room. Obviously we’d done our bit and I remember we were waiting around for an hour or so after the game, trying to find out and listening in to the results.

“Then just pure emotion and celebration, that meant so much to everybody.

“People had been on such difficult journeys before. I always say it was a bunch of misfits that were brought together.

“Whoever was doing the recruitment did a really good job, and sprayed with Eddie’s magic, it was a great team to play in.”

Francis concurred, sharing: “That was the highlight of a lot of the lads’ careers to date. Getting promoted from League One and when you imagine what came after that.

“It was like ‘wow, we’ve been promoted from League One, we might never do anything as good as that again’.

“Until you come back pre-season and Ed lays down the gauntlet again and the lads are up for it. They come back even fitter than the season before. It was definitely the start of something special.”

Something special indeed. But how would that Cherries’ team stack up alongside other dominant League One sides over the years?

One man well placed to answer that question would be Pitman.

A prolific goalscorer in three different leagues for Cherries, Pitman played 234 times in the third tier, scoring 83 times for three different clubs.

“I mean, it's hard to say,” Pitman replies when asked.

“It's ten years ago. Football has moved on slightly from then.

“What I will say is, I've been to watch Portsmouth a couple of times this season in League One against a couple of teams that are reasonably close to the top of the table.

“And our team would have absolutely hammered them both, if I'm honest.

“But you look at that team and you look where players have gone on to.

“Vast majority went on to play in at least the Championship, but the majority went on to play in the Premier League for a while as well.

“So I think that all how strong we actually were not in terms of just whether players went on (to bigger things).

“What I would say is that from Christmas onwards in that League One season was one of the most enjoyable spells of my career playing, just in terms of how good we were relative to the league.

“We played some great football and it was better because we did it with an unbelievable team spirit.

“So everybody got on and I think when that happens, it's kind of the best of both worlds.”

Check back to our website tomorrow as we move on to the celebrations post-promotion, including a trip to Las Vegas in part five of League One promotion: A decade on.