Last night the south coast club virtually sealed promotion to the top tier of English football for the first time in their history, with a 3-0 home Championship victory.
Watched by his parents Brent and Debbie, Pitman came off the bench in the second half to help secure Bournemouth’s 25th win of the campaign, and he is now set to become only the third Island player (after Graeme Le Saux and Swindon Town’s Chris Hamon) to play in the Premier League.
Pitman’s 13 league goals this season have helped put the club in such a strong position that only a defeat on Saturday, and a 20-goal swing with rivals Middlesbrough, could spoil the promotion party, which effectively started at the final whistle last night as thousands of supporters ran on to the pitch to mob the players.
Debbie Pitman: “It’s just absolutely amazing…it’s a dream come true for everybody at the club”
Debbie Pitman, manager of Jersey’s Team Jets netballers, said: ‘It’s just absolutely amazing, that’s about all I can say.
Bournemouth’s rise is a remarkable turnaround from back in 2008 when they almost went bust.
Now they stand to play in the top flight of English football’s pyramid system and they could yet go up as divisional champions if results go their way on Saturday afternoon.
Old Victorian Pitman has scored 102 goals in total for the club in his two spells, and his 96 league goals is the fourth best return from an individual in the club’s history.
Speaking to a BBC reporter following last night’s televised game on Sky TV, Pitman spoke about Cherries boss Eddie Howe saying: ‘Words can’t describe how good a job he has done – ever since he took over that first game when we were in trouble.
‘He has done a superb job.’
Pitman, formerly with Jersey’s First Tower United and St Paul’s, has spent most of his career on the south coast having come through the Cherries’ junior section.
He was invited to the club having impressed in a friendly against a Bournemouth junior side playing for St Paul’s at the IJ Bathe Field. Pitman, now 27, made his full AFC Bournemouth debut in a 0-0 League One home draw against Oldham Athletic on Saturday 11 February 2006, a day he won a bottle of Champagne after being named man-of-the-match.
He turned down a move to the Premiership with Blackpool in 2010, failing to agree personal terms, instead moving to Bristol City, scoring 20 Championship goals before moving back to Bournemouth’s Goldsands Stadium.
This season Pitman has scored 14 goals in his 39 games, 17 having come off the substitutes’ bench.
