Reaction to Cherries win over Levante

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AFC Bournemouth rounded off their pre-season training camp in Spain with a 4-3 victory over La Liga side Levante.

The side from Valencia finished 15th in Spainโ€™s top division last season after finish the campaign as winners of the second division.

As is the norm with pre-season games at this stage of the summer, the Cherries put out two separate sides to ensure that most of the players got a good 45 minutes under their belt.

It was goals galore in the first half as AFC Bournemouth raced into a 2-0 lead, with a marvellous team goal to open the scoring.

Levante then turned the game on its head with three goals in 17 minutes.

The Cherries were back on level terms before halftime.

Sweeping changes at half time brought an end to the goal-fest.

With four minutes remaining Lewis Cook scored the winner with a goal from 25 yards.

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.ukโ€ฆ

โ€œIt was a strange one because weโ€™re pleased to win. Thereโ€™s a lot to look back at and reflect on. Iโ€™m pleased that we scored four goals, but disappointed to have conceded three.

โ€œWe made a really fast start and that was reflected in the way in which weโ€™ve trained. We then had a bit of a strange period where we just lost our control.

โ€œI thought it was a real test of our character when we went 3-2 down. The pleasing thing was that we came back and won the game.

โ€œWe werenโ€™t at our fluent best with the ball today and we were open to the counter-attack. We made a few individual errors during the first half. But weโ€™re at an early stage of pre-season and weโ€™re building to where we want to be.

Your sayโ€ฆ

thegazzyb wroteโ€ฆ

I donโ€˜t expect Brooks to be in Eddieโ€˜s first matchday squad. We all know how Eddie operates โ€“ heโ€˜s very cautious with our new players. The key will be to keep Brooks motivated, even when heโ€˜s not getting a game. Brooks looks like he thinks that making a good first impression might get him in and around the matchday squad, which is quite a reasonable assumption. I just hope he isnโ€˜t too disappointed when he finds that it wasnโ€˜t enough. Not his fault, just the way Eddie goes about things and he just needs to be patient and keep his motivation levels high. Fingers crossed he has a good head on his shoulders and hopefully Lewis Cook will be able to reassure him that heโ€˜s done nothing wrong and that itโ€˜s just โ€œnormalโ€ to be left on the sidelines for a while. โ€“ Join the conversation, click here.

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