Source: Bournemouth_Echo
Cherries: Pitman delighted to share the scoring habit
HAT-trick hero Brett Pitman welcomed increased competition for the Cherries golden boot after emphatically staking his claim to retain the ace marksman's crown. The club's star striker hit a 16-minute treble as Eddie Howe's men got their season up and running with a thumping 5-1 victory over much-fancied Peterborough United. Marc Pugh and Anton Robinson struck in the first half as Cherries began brightly before turning on the style as Pitman, a transfer target for Posh last term, took centre stage after the break. Jerseyman Pitman headed the club's goalscoring charts last season and he is again the hot favourite to lead the way this time round. But new captures Pugh and Michael Symes were top scorers at their previous clubs, so there are likely to be more contenders to become goal king this term. Clutching the match ball after his sparkling display against Posh, Pitman told the Echo: That (competition to be top scorer) is only good. I think our next person had only seven goals last season, so if we can get a couple more in double figures, and myself scoring a few, then it would be good for us. I think we've got goals in our team and we're delighted with that. We look dangerous and we look like we've got goals in us, which is a massive, massive bonus. While Pitman took the official man-of-the-match honours, he was quick to lavish praise on his team-mates after an entertaining performance from Cherries. I thought everyone was good right through from the back to the front, everyone was fantastic, he said. I don't think you win many games 5-1 without everyone being fantastic. I don't think you can ever expect a result like that, but the way we played, we could have won by more, so we were delighted by that. But Pitman added: We're not going to start making predictions and things like that. We'll take each game as it comes and see where it gets us at the end of the season. It's always nice to score goals and to score three is nice I'm delighted with it. I enjoy scoring goals however they are. It doesn't matter if it's a tap-in or a 30-year screamer, I'm happy just to score.