Scott Parker’s Bournemouth side continued their charge for automatic promotion with a hard-fought victory over Nigel Pearson’s Bristol City.
Scott Parker’s AFC Bournemouth side have continued their charge for automatic promotion with a hard-fought victory over Nigel Pearson’s Bristol City.
The Cherries, who were wasteful at times, controlled the game over the 90 minutes but the five-goal thriller was far from comfortable for the home team.
Bristol took the lead early in the match through a header from Robert Atkinson. In response, Bournemouth retaliated with a brutal display which saw them have 25 shots on the The Robins goal and physically dominated the game.
An excellent display of linkup between Dominic Solanke and Jordan Zemura saw The Cherries square the game just before half-time as Solanke grabbed his 24th goal of the season, giving themselves the confidence to grab all three points in the second half.
The Cherries took the lead through a long-range effort from Lewis Cook who was exceptional on the day. They then added to their lead through super-sub Siriki Dembele who took on three players and slotted home into the bottom right corner.
A huge scare for Bournemouth came when the visitors grabbed a goal back in the 90th minute through Andreas Weimann but the consolation proved to have no effect on the outcome as Parker's side ran out 3-2 winners on the day..
Parker was full of praise for his side after the win likening it to the 3-0 away victory to Huddersfield before the international break. “I thought for the majority of the game wasn’t any different to Huddersfield” the Cherries boss claimed.
The head coach was also full of praise for the home fans saying that he was “ecstatic” with his teams' fans “especially after going a goal down”.
A big call in the match that went in Bournemouth’s favour was a penalty decision not given for Bristol City when captain Lloyd Kelly stumbled over striker Chris Martin in the box.
Bristol coach Pearson believed his side had been hard done by regarding the decision pointing out that his side have only received one penalty this season, but Parker disagreed saying “I haven’t seen it back but to me it wasn’t a penalty”.
The win means Bournemouth have now gone five league games without a loss and sit comfortably in second place with six points and three games in hand over third placed Huddersfield Town and eight points behind league leaders Fulham.