Busy day as Cherries get pre-season friendlies underway - Tour diary day five

A first match of pre-season for the Cherries saw them beat St Pauli comfortably 4-1, but with a 4pm kick-off, local time, it meant a late night for me, so I write this at about 11pm before heading to bed before what I’m sure will be another day in Austria.

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With the afternoon’s game, I took the chance to have the morning off and I played a round of golf with a member of the club’s media team, which was brilliant.

There was some good golf, some bad golf, and some in between, but it didn’t matter because the course we played was stunning.

Set in an Alpine valley, with mountains either side, it was beautifully peaceful, even if I didn’t exactly set the course alight with my golf – although I did putt well, which I was pleased with!

The golf course was stunning. (Image: NQ)

After that, a quick cycle back to my accommodation and I got changed ready for the game and walked up to the Saalfelden Arena for the first game of the Marco Rose reign.

I arrived at about 2pm ahead of a 4pm kick-off, and got myself settled in the press box.

The set-up at the ground was, I have to say, brilliant – good wifi and decent press facilities for a ground I would say is similar to a ground in the fifth or sixth tier of English football, although there had clearly been some recent investment in a fairly new clubhouse.

The pitch looked excellent, and the setting was superb.

Saalfelden Arena. (Image: NQ)

It was probably (almost definitely) the most scenic ground I’ve ever been to.

I started the matchday blog around an hour and a quarter before kick-off and got team news around then too.

There was a mix of players in the starting XI, but it was, as perhaps could have been expected, a game with two very different line-ups in each half.

I also grabbed some food at the ground, and had to get quite a bit as it was €15 minimum spend for card and I didn’t have any cash, but the bosna and pretzel were worth it.

The game itself was a good one, with hugely encouraging signs for the Cherries, and you can read more on that on the Daily Echo website.

Saalfelden Arena. (Image: NQ)

After the game, I spoke to Marco Rose, Djordje Petrovic and Daniel Jebbison, and hung around at the ground to go on BBC Radio Solent with Jordan Clark, which was good fun.

We then wandered down into town for some food (McDonalds, unfortunately, as we both had plenty of work left to do!), before returning to my Airbnb.

There, I wrote up my Jebbison interviews and did another piece from the Rose chat, plus some of my thoughts on the game.

After that, I popped out to meet up with Jordan again in town before returning to finish off some work, including this piece.

One game down in Austria, one to go!