"FASTEN your seat belt, sit tight and try to enjoy the ride. It could be a little bumpy though."

Kevin Bond could have been excused for trotting out the above quote during his first post-match press conference of the new season.

And the AFC Bournemouth matchday programme should have carried a similar warning. It could, however, have been reproduced from any of the past umpteen seasons.

There is never a dull moment following Cherries. There are plenty of anxious moments, an abundance of frustrating moments and bountiful depressing moments. Never dull ones though.

The success-starved Dean Court faithful were left to rue one of those frustrating and depressing moments on Saturday. Predictably, it was the 90th.

Leading 1-0 thanks to Darren Anderton's first-half peach, Kevin Bond's men appeared to take talk of "Football League" and "share" far too literally.

Having had their playing privileges returned at the 11th hour on Friday, Cherries were forced to start the new campaign nursing a 17-point deduction.

And with the Football League's gun successfully removed from the club's head, the deficit looked certain to reduce courtesy of a first opening-day victory of the century.

But, instead, Cherries chose to turn the gun on themselves and shot gaping holes in both feet by conceding a dramatic late equaliser.

Just six seconds of regulation time remained when Gillingham substitute Gary Mulligan ploughed a lengthy dagger through the heart of Cherries fans.

The Gills, the last team to lower Cherries' colours before they embarked on their heroic run last season, had been heading for an ill-deserved fall until Mulligan intervened.

But the generosity of the Cherries defence in the dying seconds was nothing new to the men from Kent, Andrew Crofts's injury-time leveller earning them a 1-1 draw at Priestfield in December 2006.

Perhaps somewhat embarrassed to be in the ascendancy, Cherries allowed Mulligan to lash home a cross from fellow substitute Tyrone Berry with his first touch.

And although a share of the spoils was scant reward for their endeavours, the visitors were made to pay for their profligacy having squandered a hatful of chances.

While they came and they saw, how they failed to conquer is anybody's guess, although visiting striker Simeon Jackson could have a good stab at solving the conundrum.

He wasted a glorious chance to open the scoring after an alarmingly shaky Cherries defence had been sliced apart midway through the first half. But after trading passes with fellow striker Mark McCammon, Jackson somehow managed to prod his shot wide of a gaping goal from barely six yards.

Having suffered horrendous traffic snarl-ups on route, two coach loads of travelling supporters arrived in the nick of time to see Jackson also denied in the 22nd minute.

Set free after Simon King's hopeful punt had sailed over the head of Jason Pearce, Jackson was thwarted when Shwan Jalal stuck out his left leg to save the day.

The latecomers missed precious little else.

A promising raid came to nothing when Anderton arrived on the edge of the 18-yard box to scuff his shot wide having orchestrated the move with a sublime pass to Ryan Garry.

In the main though, Cherries were devoid of invention, with Jo Kuffour left stranded up front as a stream of aimless high balls were returned with interest by the Gills giants.

Cherries were again thankful to new loan goalkeeper Jalal for parrying McCammon's bullet header, while opposite number Simon Royce theatrically saved a Kuffour snapshot.

Jalal was by far the busier of the two goalkeepers, though, with the luckless Jackson warming his palms following a sharp turn and shot in the 39th minute.

Anderton more than earned his first pay-as-you-play cheque when he fired Cherries in front with a superbly-executed strike three minutes before the break.

His lung-busting run must also have raised a few eyebrows with listeners to BBC Radio Kent after their commentator had noted how tired Anderton had looked as he prepared to take a corner just seconds earlier.

"I always look tired!" retorted Anderton. "Shaun Cooper saw me in a bit of space behind their midfield and touched a lovely ball to me.

"One defender lunged in so I went past him it and it opened up quite nicely for me."

The only lucky aspect of Anderton's goal was that if afforded Cherries an interval lead when their efforts had merited significantly less.

Although the Gills upped the ante in the second half, chances were scarce as their attacking purpose was not matched by their creativity.

Cherries hung on grimly as the visitors hoisted everything but the kitchen sink into their 18-yard box.

But although a change in formation and personnel briefly stemmed the tide, their luck finally ran out when an inability to stop Berry's cross allowed Mulligan to sweep home the equaliser.