Aston Villa v AFCB - Highlights & Reaction

AFC Bournemouth travelled to the midlands on the back of a memorable win over Liverpool, looking to do the double over Aston Villa following an opening day win at the start of the current Premier League campaign.

Aston Villa came into the match unbeaten in three and very much improved following the sacking of Steven Gerrard.

The Cherries would go on to lose the match 3-0, but the highlight was the return to action of David Brooks.

Having given the Dean Court faithful a teaser in the last fixture, where Brooks was an unused substitute, this game brought his first appearance since the 29th September 2021.

A few short weeks after that appearance, David Brooks announced that he had been diagnosed with Stage II Hodgkin Lymphoma. Well-wishes poured in from the footballing community following the announcement from the then-24-year-old.

Ten months ago, Brooks announced he was cancer free. Which was the point he could start his long road to recovery, to return to action as a Premier League footballer.

After the game, AFC Bournemouth head coach Gary O’Neil spoke about David Brooks’ return and told Sky Sports…

“Delighted for him. The reception he got was fantastic and deservedly so. He’s been through a lot and worked extremely hard to get to this point.

“We need to be sensible with his minutes, but he’ll get another couple of weeks now of good work. Hopefully he’ll get a few more minutes with the U21s in the week and he’ll be available for longer next time.”

Bournemouth's David Brooks comes on for his first appearance since September 2021 👏 pic.twitter.com/X1hvLtzwDI

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) March 18, 2023

Welcome back, Brooksy ❤️ #afcb pic.twitter.com/lCcOJF6lR2

— Daniel Davis (@dan_davis20) March 18, 2023

On the game itself, he added…

“…I thought it was in the balance for a long time. We didn’t start well enough, we were too slow out of the blocks and we didn’t look like ourselves for the first 10 minutes and Villa punished us for that.

“From 1-0, we wrestled our way back into it, created some good chances, had some situations where we could have done better. Near the end, we open it up a little bit with more attacking players on the pitch. It goes against us and the scoreline makes it looks worse than it was…”

Man of the match against Aston Villa

Neto

O. Dango

Traore

Rothwell

Someone else

Gary O'Neil reflects on this afternoon's defeat to Aston Villa 🎤

— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) March 18, 2023

Written by AFCBmattjamr

Another embarrassing performance. We are the worst team in the league by a country mile, the Liverpool result was a massive fluke. Every other team around us is picking up points.

Solanke for all his effort is not a premier league forward. Sounds weird saying that because he’s consistently one of our better players but he’s just not a good enough forward at this level

Bishop added…

Well that deteriorated rapidly. Terrible last 25 minutes. Bizarre

Great to have you back, @DRBrooks15 🫶 pic.twitter.com/VNqgrvXCGS

— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) March 18, 2023

AFCBade wrote…

Have to score when you get the chances. We could have got something out of this game but obviously punished at the end. Disappointing but regroup for April now. – To join the conversation, click here.