AFC Bournemouth travelled to Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon, still under the temporary stewardship of caretaker head-coach Gary O’Neil.
In the opposite dugout, those supporters in the away end and with good eyesight will have been able to see former AFC Bournemouth manager and legend Eddie Howe.
This was the first time supporters in their numbers would have been able to greet both Howe and former player Ryan Fraser since covid-19, unsurprisingly they both received rather different reactions.
The Cherries were once again without their captain Lloyd Kelly, who has now picked up an ankle injury. O’Neil named Adam Smith, Chris Mepham, Marcos Senesi and Jordan Zemura as his back four ahead of Neto in goal.
The midfield and attack kept their familiar shape with Lewis Cook, Jefferson Lerma, Philip Billing operating centrally, Ryan Christie and Marcus Tavernier wider, with Dominic Solanke up front.
The home side dominated possession, but it was the Cherries who found the breakthrough first with Zemura setting up Billing for his second goal of the season.
But the lead didn’t last long as VAR interfered to give a dubious penalty against Jefferson Lerma for handball, it proved an influential interference as the penalty resulted in a goal with the points shared.
After the game, O’Neil told Sky Sports…
“I’m really disappointed with the penalty, I’ve seen it back a couple of times. I don’t know what Jefferson Lerma was meant to do really. He’s not looking, his arms were by his side and there is no way he has meant to handball that or his hand is in an unnatural position.
“It’s a real tough one, especially after the Lloyd Kelly one at Forest that they looked at and decided not to overturn, and then today for them to overturn it I thought it was harsh on the boys.
“Newcastle are a good side, they’re very aggressive and play forward a lot. We suffered in moments but the boys stood up to it and we knew it was going to look like that.
“Early in the game we were trying to be a tad more aggressive, but as the game goes on and they gain control we have to drop off and we need to be sensible and defend our box.”
Man of the match against Newcastle
Billing
Neto
Zemura
Christie
Tavenier
Solanke
Someone else
https://twitter.com/beINSPORTS_EN/status/1571175931036798979?s=20&t=R5el33SKJvlpa-1OwFluYw
"๐ง๐ต๐ฒ๐ ๐ด๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด."
Gary O'Neil's post-match thoughts ๐ฌ
— AFC Bournemouth ๐ (@afcbournemouth) September 17, 2022
Written by dragonm8
Harsh penalty decision.
The boys deserved the 3 points.
Christie, Tavernier Mepham, Zemura and Lerma all played brilliantly.
Cook needs to read the game a bit better at times.
No real complaints.
Scotty Parker hang your head in shame, beating this lot up mentally.
A message from this man ๐ pic.twitter.com/6wAg225RmF
— AFC Bournemouth ๐ (@afcbournemouth) September 17, 2022
A starring performance ๐คฉ
Our @HendyGroup ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ is @Neto_Murara's superb double-save ๐ pic.twitter.com/cbs475zgoP
— AFC Bournemouth ๐ (@afcbournemouth) September 18, 2022
Some big moments from Neto ๐งค
His reaction with afcbTV ๐ฃ
— AFC Bournemouth ๐ (@afcbournemouth) September 17, 2022
Red_till_im_ded wrote…
Absolutely fantastic result although Newcastle were extremely lucky to get that point. The unfortunate penalty so soon after we had opened the scoring that VAR decided was a penalty and not the weak referee. The ball actually bounced off Lerma’s knee and onto his hand. Not clear and obvious handball.
I thought our shape and organisation was excellent and we made Newcastle look very ordinary. We are the team everyone expects to beat but that’s not the case. O’Neil has us looking in good form. Excellent performance from Neto and so close to being my MOM but I’m going for Billing. Thought he gave everything today and was sharp for the goal.
Well done boys. The pressure will be mounting on Eddie.
Moving forward together ๐ฅ
Thanks to all the fans for your support ๐ช๐ฝ๐ pic.twitter.com/xm0FkyIim2— Marcos Senesi (@senesimarcos) September 17, 2022
Outstanding noise from every single one of you up there โค๏ธ pic.twitter.com/pDyHIl99bf
— AFC Bournemouth ๐ (@afcbournemouth) September 17, 2022
thegazzyb added…
A really great point under the circumstances.
We put in a real shift and suddenly look so well organised with everyone behind the ball.
You have to choose your battles.
Today was not the day to go all gung-ho.
Concentrate, keep it tight, help each other out, and try to score on the counter. The perfect plan was executed perfectly. We set out to frustrate Newcastle and neutralise their superior quality. Realistically that was always going to be our best chance of getting something from the game. We scored a beautiful goal and the penalty was unfortunate but was bound to be given once VAR got involved.
OโNeil seems to be very astute and you can already see the improvement in our ability to defend as a team. We are now properly competing in matches, we will make most teams work for the points.
We have a proper shot at staying up as things stand IMO. We can compete, despite what Mr Cardigan said!
Great credit goes to all involved, players and staff.
Fantastic once again, 100% effort throughout. – Join the conversation, click here.
