WHERE did it all go wrong?

It's the question every Cherries fan is asking after a season which promised so much delivered so little.

In the space of 12 months, Sean O'Driscoll's side has gone from being within touching distance of winning promotion to Division One to condemned to life with the dead wood in Division Three.

Two minutes from reaching the play-offs at Reading in May, Cherries have suffered an almighty hangover which is likely to have disastrous consequences for the club.

It would be easy to lay the blame solely at O'Driscoll's door, as some fans have already, but the Cherries board must also shoulder part of the responsibility for the club's rapid demise.

Cherries' new stadium was supposed to herald the start of a new era, although the script failed to mention the prospect of Dean Court hosting Division Three football during its first full season.

And although the stadium was vital to the long-term future, it has also been a millstone around O'Driscoll's neck as Cherries have failed to cope with the financial burden it has put on the club.

As a result, and before a ball had even been kicked, the board tried to pull the rug from under O'Driscoll when, apparently without his knowledge, they agreed to sell Eddie Howe and Richard Hughes to Wigan.

Although the deal fell through, Howe was sacrificed to make ends meet on transfer deadline day and the timing of his departure could not have been worse for O'Driscoll.

Cherries folded like a house of cards following the exit of their linchpin defender and the sinking ship finally capsized after the captain had gone overboard.

The directors also turned their noses up when the delicate matter of the fans having a whip-round to help fund the transfer of Derek Holmes was publicised.

Apparently, it was feared the proposal would emphasis the club's parlous financial predicament and possibly jeopardise potential investment in the club.

However, the world and his wife were alerted to the club's plight when Cherries were forced to go cap in hand to the PFA to borrow £50,000 to pay the wages in February.

On the pitch, O'Driscoll knew the writing was on the wall after Cherries had crashed to their second successive defeat at their temporary home at Dorchester's Avenue Stadium.

After seeing the prospect of a lucrative run in the Worthington Cup ended by lowly Torquay, O'Driscoll told the fans to prepare themselves for a "rough ride".

Spoiled by the previous season's exploits of Jermain Defoe and the positive impact the West Ham loan star had had on his team-mates, the success-starved Cherries fans were expecting great things.

But with talismanic skipper Steve Fletcher sidelined with a knee problem and influential midfielder Hughes missing large chunks of the opening months due to injury, O'Driscoll was also deprived of two other key performers.

New signing Warren Feeney, who became the latest victim of Cherries' penalty jinx on his home debut against Blackpool, also took time to adjust and spent the first three months of the season battling against injury and a loss of form.

Then, as soon as Cherries had started to find their feet at Dorchester, they had to up sticks and do it all over again at their new stadium.

Cherries suffered another humiliating and costly cup exit at non-league Barnet in the LDV Vans Trophy, while their FA Cup exploits came to an end at Peterborough who eventually progressed to meet Newcastle in a money-spinning fourth round tie.

The euphoria of two consecutive home wins in the Fitness First Stadium - against Wrexham and Worksop - coupled with an away triumph at Colchester soon died down when Cherries embarked on a disastrous run of 12 league and cup games without a victory between mid-November and the end of January.

And following a 1-0 defeat at struggling Northampton, where fans' favourite Wade Elliott was dropped by O'Driscoll, the supporters turned against the players as hopes for a play-off place were replaced by fears of a relegation battle.

Elliott's loss of form prompted O'Driscoll to draft in JJ Melligan on loan from Wolves to provide cover in midfield. However, despite being vaunted by the manager, the young Irishman failed to win over the fans during his unhappy stay.

The winless sequence also saw Eddie Howe and Richard Hughes sent off at Swindon and QPR respectively, while own goals by James Hayter at Blackpool and Karl Broadhurst at Oldham did nothing to help the cause.

Cherries stopped the rot with a stunning 3-1 win over high-flying Stoke at the start of February and although the victory raised hopes that the corner had been turned, it proved to be a false dawn.

A run of seven games without a win followed the triumph over the Potters and Cherries' luck was well and truly summed up when Elliott blazed a last-minute penalty over the crossbar during a 2-2 draw at table-topping Reading at the start of March.

However, their fortunes took a dramatic twist when everything Cherries touched turned to gold during a 5-1 rout of relegation rivals Northampton before Michael Menetrier, deputising for the suspended Gareth Stewart, kept the club's first clean sheet of the year at Tranmere.

Elliott redeemed himself by scoring from the spot against Cambridge, but a 2-2 draw against the division's whipping boys again set the alarm bells ringing before the noise became positively deafening following defeats by Bristol City and Notts County.

But perhaps the most catastrophic setback came against Colchester where Shaun Maher's second and Cherries' sixth own goal of the season condemned O'Driscoll's side to defeat in a game they simply had to win.

A 0-0 draw at Port Vale prolonged the agony and gave Cherries a brief stay of execution, but their fate was in the hands of others and the trapdoor finally opened when they failed to beat Wrexham and Notts County triumphed over Huddersfield on the final day of the season.