ALTHOUGH hindsight is a wonderful thing, in the case of Phil Brown and AFC Bournemouth it is largely irrelevant.

In a week when Brown guided surprise packages Hull to the summit of the Premiership, some Cherries fans have been left to rue the one that got away.

Short-listed for the Dean Court manager’s job in October 2006, Brown was eventually passed over by the Cherries board for Kevin Bond.

And while his subsequent achievements at Hull may have had some Cherries fans lamenting the choice of Bond, their beef carries no weight.

Like Bond, Brown had little previous managerial experience when he applied for the Cherries post and his credentials hardly flattered.

The biggest selling point on his CV would have been a successful stint as number two to Sam Allardyce at Bolton where he also took charge of five games on a caretaker basis.

However, his ill-fated spell as manager of Derby – his first taste of a top job – is unlikely to have impressed the interviewing panel.

As the Rams hurtled towards relegation, Brown was dismissed after just seven months at Pride Park.

In truth, of the three candidates for the Cherries job, ex-Gillingham player-manager Andy Hessenthaler was probably the most qualified.

So while some supporters may think Cherries’ loss was ultimately Hull’s gain, it is probable that Brown would have fallen on his sword had destiny brought him to the south coast.

As many previous incumbents have discovered, the Dean Court hot-seat is less comfortable than an electric chair. Since lifting the old third division championship under Harry Redknapp in 1987, success for Cherries managers has been based largely on failure.

With Mel Machin at the helm, losing the Auto Windscreens Shield final at Wembley in 1998 was hailed as a major triumph.

And winning the Division Three play-off final in 2003 – having suffered relegation a season earlier – was also trumpeted as an achievement.

In the past, the impossible job of managing Cherries has often gone to a rookie. Since Redknapp abdicated in 1992 and before Jimmy Quinn was appointed in September, three of the previous four managers had been novices, with O’Driscoll, Bond and Tony Pulis all cutting their teeth in the Football League with Cherries.

While the trio would doubtless concur the post is nothing short of a poisoned chalice, as a stepping stone to greater things, Dean Court has proved an ideal starting point. Pulis at Stoke and O’Driscoll at Doncaster have both made successes of their current clubs, while Bond this week joined the coaching staff at Premiership Spurs.

And while a lack of experience may have counted against them during their time at Dean Court, it certainly had nothing to do with their ability to revive Cherries’ fortunes.

The lower leagues are littered with successful first-time managers – Adie Boothroyd (Watford), Nigel Adkins (Scunthorpe), Darren Ferguson (Peterborough), Paul Trollope (Bristol Rovers) and Paul Tisdale (Exeter) to name but five.

Although there is no substitute for experience, there is also no disgrace in failing to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.