Tindall: Cherries midfielders among best in League One (From Bournemouth Echo)

Tindall: Cherries midfielders among best in League One

1:26pm Wednesday 7th November 2012 in Sport By Ian Wadley

JASON Tindall believes Cherries' League One rivals will struggle to field a better midfield pair than in-form duo Shaun MacDonald and Harry Arter.

The assistant manager is convinced that Cherries' engine-room partners are among the best in their position in English football's third tier.

MacDonald and Arter have been central to the club's resurgence since Eddie Howe and Tindall returned to take charge of first-team affairs.

Former Wales under-21s captain MacDonald has earned plaudits for his work ethic during a string of consistent displays.

Talented Arter has hit the headlines for his creative play and was rewarded with a new long-term contract last month.

Speaking after Cherries had recorded a 2-1 win over Shrewsbury Town last night, Tindall told the Daily Echo: “I think both of them are fantastic footballers. They do a great job for the team.

“Macca is, in some senses, an unsung hero with the amount of work he gets through and the amount of defensive positions he picks up.

“People saw with Harry last night that, going forward, he is very creative.

“With both of them together, I think you would find it tough to find two better central midfielders in the division.”

In defeating Shrewsbury, Cherries made it six matches without defeat following the arrival of Howe and Tindall as successors to Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks. The Goldsands Stadium outfit are now six points off the play-off places.

Tindall said: “You will only be successful by being consistent in your results and performances. That was our aim.

“We are playing catch-up in terms of points and we have just got to continue that level of performance and momentum, and make sure we stay focused for every training session and every game that we play.

“If we can manage to do that then, hopefully, we can continue the positive results and who knows where that may take us?”

Following the early strikes from Charlie Daniels and Josh McQuoid against Shrewsbury, Cherries have scored 16 goals in five games with Howe in the dugout. But Tindall admitted it should have been even better after Shrews keeper Chris Weale had denied the hosts on numerous occasions.

“We created a number of fantastic chances and their goalkeeper had one of those nights where he pretty much saved everything that was in his range and on target,” added Tindall.

“We were disappointed to have only scored two with the number of chances we created, but the most important thing was to put on a good performance and to get the three points and we managed to do that.

“I thought we were excellent in the second half against Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday and we started the game very well last night.”