King makes Cherries sleep easy
FIRST ACT: Josh King scores after two minutes JOSH KING has revealed sleeping away from home has been the key to his red- hot goalscoring form for Bournemouth in 2017.
Former Manchester United striker King has 11 goals since the turn of the year, the most recent on Saturday as the Cherries crushed lowly Middlesbrough.
“The only thing I am doing differently is staying in the hotel the day before home games because my baby keeps me up a lot at night,” said King about his 15- month- old son Noah.
King and his strike partner Benik Afobe have scored 17 of Bournemouth’s last 21 goals, which have propelled Eddie Howe’s side away from the danger zone.
“I am more ruthless than I have been before and I want to keep this form going,” said King, 25. “I have scored against good teams, some of the big teams, this season. Myself and Benik, I feel we can score against any team in this league.”
King took only two minutes to strike against Boro and Afobe added their second after 16 minutes to send the Teessiders closer to relegation.
Howe has conceded that King’s form will have “people taking notice and writing his name down” but the Norway international said he is giving no thought to a move away from the Vitality Stadium.
“I have no focus on that and the manager has been brilliant with me,” said King. “We have four games left and hopefully I can get a goal in each of those.”
He insists he is playing “with no fear”, a style that has reminded his mum of her son as a young boy.
BOURNEMOUTH MIDDLESBROUGH
“I have got my childhood confi dence back,” he said . “My mum texted me today and said, ‘ When I am watching you play now it is like watching you on the playground’ .”
Boro are now nine points adrift and without a league win in 2017. With three of their remaining fi ve games against Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, the Championship beckons.
Ex- England winger Stewart Downing apologised to fans who had made the 12- hour round trip for his team’s dire showing and said it is the players, not the manager, who should take the fl ak.
“As players, we have to take the blame,” said Downing. “You can point your fi nger at everyone but it’s down to us who were playing.”
The game was over after 20 minutes, with Boro two down and Gaston Ramirez sent off for two bookings.
Downing said: “It’s been really diffi cult for our manager Steve Agnew. He was given an unbelievable task with 11 games to go. It’s embarrassing. We weren’t good enough all over the park.”
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