AFC Bournemouth bounced back from Sunday’s shock cup defeat to Boreham Wood by beating Birmingham City 3-1 at Vitality Stadium with Scott Parker stating his team's first half performance made the team look "every bit a top side".
AFC Bournemouth bounced back from Sunday’s shock cup defeat to Boreham Wood by beating Birmingham City 3-1 at Vitality Stadium with Scott Parker stating his team's first half performance made the team look "every bit a top side".
A dominant first half display saw goals from Ryan Christie and Dominic Solanke give the Cherries a comfortable 2-0 lead at the break. Jefferson Lerma then saw red before Onel Hernandez pulled one back for the away side, setting the game up for a nervy finish.
Speaking after the game, Bournemouth head coach, Parker, said: “Yeah it seems a little groundhoggy in that sense because I thought in the first half we were every bit of a top side.
“I asked my players to give us a reaction tonight, the fans a reaction, give us all a reaction from what happened on Sunday where every single one of us was bitterly disappointed with the result.
“I thought the first half we were exceptional in attack, pace, power. Technical ability was superb and two could have three or four and then obviously the second half the sending off changes the game a little bit in that sense.”
Hernandez’s goal took a big deflection of Nat Phillips to in a three minute spell that looked set to derail Bournemouth’s good work from the first half but the way in which the team reacted to conceding impressed the Cherries boss as Jaidon Anthony scored his first goal in nine games to secure the win for Parker's side with 14 minutes to go.
Parker continued: “And even saying that, after they score, at 2-1 we react in a very good way, show big character to then obviously still be a threat and score to make it 3-1 which gave us a little bit of oxygen and then after that we have to protect that.”
Lukas Jutkiewicz had a glorious opportunity to score with the game at 2-1 but was denied by Mark Travers who put in another solid performance between the sticks which left Parker “pleased” with not only the result but the manner in which the team reacted from the defat to Boreham Wood.
“Obviously they put a lot of bodies in the box they bring on Jutkiewicz who is an aerial threat for them, the defenders have done extremely well, Mark Travers has had to pull off some saves as well,” Parker added.
“So overall very pleased with the result and more importantly I am pleased with the reaction of the team really because Sunday was a wounder for us.
“Those players were broken a little bit and very disappointed with what happened on Sunday and I thought we had to prove something tonight and we did that.”
Consistency has been an issue for Parker’s side lately and when asked on whether the performance over Birmingham was a sign of the team getting back to their best,Parker responded: “No we are not too far off.
“The fine margins of winning and losing are so, so small that is where we have probably been over the last few months - the margins are very very tight.
“The margins were tight tonight. 2-0 and the dominance.
“In the Championship this is what this league is about really and then you go a man down then at 2-1 they have another massive chance with Jutkiewicz and Travs saves, then we go and score . This is this division really.”
He added: Consistency is the king of this division and over the last couple of months we have probably not had that really.
“Hopefully this result now will give us a bit of a lift to obviously go to a difficult place in Blackpool."