IT is the anniversary which is unlikely to go down in Cherries’ folklore but perhaps it should.

Eight years ago today, the club was on the receiving end of an ignominious defeat which probably shaped its future.

Having failed to see off Blyth Spartans at the first attempt, Jimmy Quinn’s men headed to the far-flung north east outpost for an FA Cup second round replay.

It was an extra game Quinn’s League Two strugglers could have done without, while the prospect of a 740-mile round trip on a Tuesday had hardly had supporters rushing for the travel club.

In drawing 0-0 at Dean Court having eliminated League Two high-fliers Shrewsbury in the first round, Blyth were making a mockery of their lowly standing in Conference North.

And with the possibility of another giant-killing in the offing, the Setanta cameras had again converged on Spartans’ exposed Croft Park headquarters.

There was added incentive for both teams to progress as the third round draw had pitted the victors against Premiership outfit Blackburn Rovers, another tie selected for broadcast.

At the time, Blyth were probably in better financial health than Cherries, a factor which made victory for the Dorset club all the more vital.

Handicapped by a Football League deduction having come out of administration just months earlier, Cherries were six points adrift of safety in the basement division when they headed to Northumberland.

The tie proved to be the banana skin of all banana skins with teenage supersub Ged Dalton coming off the bench to grab a dramatic late winner for the part-timers.

Cherries’ woes had been compounded by the dismissal of Brett Pitman just three minutes after he had come on as a substitute as the club suffered one of its most humiliating defeats.

Although Dalton’s goal denied Cherries a much-needed payday against Blackburn, the loss of an unexpected £250,000 windfall probably hastened the departure of co-owner and chairman Paul Baker and certainly did little for the ongoing job prospects of manager Quinn.

Baker emerged from the wreckage of the catastrophic exit to claim the club had not budgeted for an FA Cup run and said it would not have a huge impact on spending in the January transfer window.

There is no doubt, however, that victory would have made Baker think twice before bailing out just 15 days later – on the same New Year’s Eve as Quinn received his marching orders as manager.

Baker, who had purchased the club with business partner Alastair Saverimutto in the July, concluded a deal for his 50 per cent stake with a consortium headed by director Adam Murry.

Murry’s first act was to appoint Eddie Howe as caretaker-manager for Cherries’ next two games. His first masterstroke was to then ask Howe to remain in place for the remainder of the season.

Howe’s brief was to stop Cherries falling through the Football League trapdoor, a task he achieved by masterminding the Greatest Escape.

Instead of watching Cherries lose their first game under Howe’s temporary stewardship at the start of January 2009, supporters could have been living the dream of an FA Cup third round clash with Blackburn Rovers.

The rest…as they say.