AFC Bournemouth returned to Championship action following the international break with a home match against manager Jonathan Woodgate’s former club.
The two sides knew going into the game that this was pretty much a make or break game in regards to who really would be challenging for a play-off slot at the end of the 2020/21 campaign.
Woodgate was buoyed by the return of both Adam Smith and Junior Stanislas for this game, however, David Brooks remained unavailable.
The Cherries took the lead through another goal from Philip Billing, the Denmark international really enjoying his more advanced role under Woodgate.
AFC Bournemouth would be pegged back early into the second half, but goals from Jefferson Lerma and Dominic Solanke would put the game beyond the visitors.
After the match, Woodgate told Sky Sports…
“Upsets happen at different times that you do not see coming but we ground out a performance in the end today to win 3-1.
“We are becoming more together and have more team spirit, we showed that in the second half. It was a sticky spell after they made it 1-1 but we quickly started playing again.
“This is the business end of the season where your big players showed up. Being a manager is much more difficult than being a player but when we win, I don’t half enjoy it. I will enjoy tonight, get some nice Chinese food and a nice bottle of wine.”
Man of the match against Boro
Lerma
Billing
Solanke
Someone else
"I'm really pleased for the players, we deserved that."
The boss on the victory today 👇#afcb 🍒
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) April 2, 2021
"Pleased to get the result but still a long way to go"#afcb manager Jonathan Woodgate keeping feet firmly on the ground
Listen to the Cherries boss speak to @kristemple after the win 🔊👇 pic.twitter.com/MvYKNXFzwm
— BBC Radio Solent Sport (@solentsport) April 2, 2021
Warnock on Cherries – "They have to go up. When you look at their wage bill and the players they've got, you'd expect them to be a little bit better to be honest." #afcb
— Tom Crocker (@TomCrockerEcho) April 2, 2021
Onto Monday 🍒🏹 pic.twitter.com/gvjv7TKeB3
— Steve Cook (@SteveCook28) April 2, 2021
Big win for us today. We go again Monday. 💪🏻🆎🧤⚽️🍒 @afcbournemouth @Ab1Gk pic.twitter.com/6QJ3bEoi5C
— Asmir Begovic (@asmir1) April 2, 2021
Your say…
Ken Baileys Ghost wrote…
Right now I feel like our promotion charge has actually gone from a trot to a canter.
Don’t like the way we are playing, but we have momentum now.
RobTrent wrote…
A strange one. I thought we were good up until we scored. Then Boro seemed to dominate up until their equaliser. Then we finally stepped up.
Been a while since convincing performance, but 3-1? I’ll take that. – Join the conversation, click here.
