AFC Bournemouth received what they had been waiting for, for a long time on Boxing Day. Their first, Boxing Day game at Dean Court in four years… oh and a penalty for the first time in 609 days.
The Cherries went into the game on the south coast as the in-form team in the top flight of English Football, looking to make it 7 wins from 9 games. A dominant first-half performance eventually led to an opener, when Alex Scott, who had dropped into a deep central midfield role in the absence of Lewis Cook, drove forward before knocking it off for Justin Kluivert to score.
AFC Bournemouth extended their lead when, for the first time in 609 days and the first time during the club’s second spell in the Premier League, a referee awarded the Cherries a penalty.
Ironically, the last time AFC Bournemouth were handed a penalty at Dean Court, this was also against Fulham in front of the North Stand, the same outcome occurred with Dominic Solanke scoring.
The three points were wrapped up, like a belated Christmas present when Sinisterra scored the goal of the game.
Following the game, AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraolo told Sky Sports…
“We want to keep it going. We’re not as bad as we looked at the beginning of the season, we’re not as good as we look now probably today. We’re somewhere in the middle.”
When talking to the Daily Echo, Iraola added…
“…Until the last goal, we were still suffering. You always suffer, especially against teams like Fulham, because they have great quality.
“They score one and then you can get in trouble.”
Man of the match against Fulham
Scott
O. Dango
Sinisterra
Solanke
Zabarnyi
Semenyo
Kluivert
Christie
Neto
Senesi
Someone else
billythekid
What another enjoyable afternoon watching our side.
Getting towards half-time with the score 0-0, Alex Scott gets the ball and goes on a tricky run beating players then puts a pass through to Justin Kluivert who puts the ball in the net for the lead 1-0.
Second half and Antoine Semenyo bursts into the Fulham area was fouled, penalty. Surely not we don’t get penalties, but as it is the Christmas season, a penalty it was and that man Dominic Solanke made no mistake from the spot to make it 2-0 for his 12th goal of the season.
Then as the game was in injury time, Luis Sinisterra got the ball cut across the top of the Fulham area and unleashed a cracking shot to put the icing on the cake to make it 3-0 and move the Cherries up to 10th in the table.
The chant for our manager went right around the ground and the fans in the MS were on their feet facing towards Andoni Iraola and singing his name, which was well deserved by the way he has got our team to finally click into his style of playing and has now given us six wins and a draw in our last seven games and scoring 20 goals.
AFCB fans are really getting a treat at the moment and let’s hope it continues into 2024.
First time seeing Dango Ouattara in a full back role and what an assured game he had, he looks a really good player now.
"For sure Dom was waiting for it" 😅 pic.twitter.com/0ouETglyD8
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) December 26, 2023
Def_II_Royalz
This is definitely a bit wild. We’re good. It’s very confusing.
All credit to Dango: might well get found out by the better sides but he’s causing all sorts of trouble on that left side. And like Christie, a great engine on him too.
Lovely to have a midfield we can rotate now. Scott offers something different in attack to Cook but I think the key to our recent success is how in sync our midfield players have been.
Anyway, I’m loving this.
It's all smiles for the Bournemouth players as they beat Fulham 😃
The Cherries are up to 10th in the table and are now unbeaten in seven matches 💪#PLonPrime #BOUFUL pic.twitter.com/Eh4V8NDTzx
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) December 26, 2023
table
Well that was some festive fun. carry on like this and the Eddie Howe goalbots are going to be replaced by AI goalbots : )
Dang-go, what a dang good player he is and I think he’ll get better : )
We got one of those penalty things we used to get years ago and Dom converted it in to a goal but it seems we’re rationed to just the one a game : )
Breaking News: Penalty.
609 days since their last penalty. Bournemouth score from the spot.
It’s a Christmas miracle.
— Mark McAdam (@markmcadamtv) December 26, 2023
Happy Boxing Day, Cherries! 🎁 pic.twitter.com/obAqVi8CPf
— Justin Dean Kluivert (@justinkluivert) December 26, 2023
bigfatolly
I think we controlled the game from start to finish really,yes Fulham were tidy on the ball but most of the game was played in their half in the first half and Neto had little to do.
We had a couple of chances that Leno dealt with before Scott decided to channel his inner Gazza and supplied Kluivert with his second top flight goal that Leno perhaps could have done better with.
Possession stats at HT were 50/50 that surprised me as I thought we had more of the ball.
Second half we soaked up the pressure and broke when we needed to which led to Antoine being fouled giving us the penalty thingie .
Dom despatched that and there was no way back for Fulham after that until Sini put the icing on the Christmas cake with a strike that reminded me of Danjuma at Norwich in the Covid Champo season.
So yes in the end it felt like a routine win and I expected a bit more from Fulham. – To join the conversation, click here.
