Dig out the value with Cherries jewel Pitman; GOLDEN BOOT.

IT hasn't been a rosy couple of years for Bournemouth but the club's financial problems and transfer embargo did at least give striker Brett Pitman the chance to shine, writes James Milton.

The Channel Islander had made just 21 League One starts for the Cherries in 2006-07 and 2007-08, scoring a respectable 12 goals, but he was thrust into first-team action last term to great effect.

He started 29 games, ending up with a haul of 17 goals to leave him joint-fifth in the League Two scoring charts.

Those statistics tell only half the story, however, as Pitman struck a rich seam of goals in the second half of the season.

In his last 19 appearances of the campaign, the 21-year-old scored 13 times and even the best teams in the division struggled to cope with the Jersey-born hitman.

Pitman scored a brace against runners-up Exeter, once against third-placed Wycombe and playoff finalists Shrewsbury and in April he grabbed a hat-trick against 2008-2009 TOP SCORERS 20 G Holt Shrewsbury 10-1 J Lester Chesterfield 14-1 19 S Jackson Gillingham 40-1 18 R Reid Rotherham 17 P Benson Dagenham A Le Fondre Rochdale J O'Flynn Barnet B Pitman Bournemouth P Thorne Bradford another top-six club, Rochdale.

Pitman's Bournemouth stayed up last season at the expense of Chester, for whom Ryan Lowe scored 16 league goals.

That was a remarkable tally given how poor Chester were last term - Lowe's team-mates managed to score only a further 27 goals between them.

Bury won the race to sign the 30-year-old, who notched 30 goals in 87 games for previous club Crewe in League One, and with superior service he should thrive this season.

Recommendations B Pitman 1pt each-way 25-1 Blue Square, Victor Chandler R Lowe 0.5pts each-way 40-1 Hills

CAPTION(S):

Bournemouth's Brett Pitman has bags of talent