BOURN AGAIN ...AND AGAIN ...AND AGAIN
DAVID BROOKS showed just why Bournemouth are reluctant to let him leave by inspiring this demolition of Championship Swansea.
Wales ace Brooks scored one goal and made two others to send the south-coast side into the fifth round for only the third time in 35 years.
Brooks has been frustrated at a lack of playing time this season, but the Cherries have rebuffed offers from Championship promotion hopefuls Leeds and Southampton this month.
Bournemouth made five changes from the side beaten 4-0 by Liverpool at the weekend but still found themselves 3-0 up inside 14 minutes as the Swansea defence went AWOL.
Defender Lloyd Kelly, whose future at the club beyond the end of the season when his contract is up is in real doubt, opened the floodgates after only seven minutes with a superbly improvised finish to hook Brooks’s free-kick into the roof of the net (celebrating, left).
Brooks turned provider again three minutes later, bursting away down the right before cutting the ball back for the unmarked Alex Scott to sweep home.
Kyle Naughton hit the post for the visitors while Liam Cullen had a decent effort tipped over by Bournemouth keeper Mark Travers towards the end of the first half.
But it started to get ugly for Swansea when Luis Sinisterra finished neatly into the bottom-left corner with an angled shot to make it 3-0 after goalkeeper Andrew Fisher had passed the ball straight to Scott.
Brooks got the goal his efforts deserved 10 minutes before half-time after racing in behind a sorry Swans backline to side-foot past Fisher from Dominic Solanke’s through-ball.
Solanke (celebrating, top, with Brooks and Scott) bagged the fifth from close range a minute before half-time – the first time Bournemouth had been 5-0 up at the break since beating Margate 11-0 in the FA Cup first round in 1971 when striker Ted Macdougall helped himself to NINE of them.
Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola took pity on the Swans by taking off Solanke at the break and it was his replacement Kieffer Moore who went closest to adding to the scoring 15 minutes from time with a shot that was deflected just past the post as the hosts declared at five.