Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FREED ALL ABOUT IT
On-song Bournemouth will turn every victory into Gala occasion
BOURNEMOUTH’S jubilant changing-room was turned into a 90s disco as Eddie Howe’s men climbed out of the bottom three.
After every priceless victory, jubilant Cherries players and coaching staff join in unison to belt out Gala’s 1997 No.2 hit “Freed From Desire.”
Even as beaten Villa boss Dean Smith emerged from the away dressing-room to conduct his post-match TV interviews, the chant was still reverberating from across the corridor.
Ironically, the tradition started after Bournemouth’s 2-1 win at Villa Park in August, according to goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale. “It’s our winning song, which we have not had the pleasure of playing too many times this season,” said the England Under-21 international.
“I don’t know who picked the song. It was at Villa when we won and it came on. It was the second game of the season and the coaches joined in – now it is routine when we win.
“We have had the winning feeling now for the past two weeks and we want that feeling more and more.”
The dressing-room scenes of delight were echoed on the pitch where Bournemouth’s players dropped to their knees at the final whistle.
It was partly in recognition of what the win against their relegation rivals could mean come May and partly due to exhaustion after playing with 10 men for a large part of the second half. Before Jefferson Lerma’s sending-off for two yellow cards the Cherries were cruising, having produced their best 45 minutes of a difficult campaign. The home side were well worth their 2-0 half-time lead courtesy of Philip Billing’s first Premier League goal for
the club and a first for Nathan Ake (celebrating, below) since September. But Lerma’s dismissal offered Villa a lifeline and Bournemouth were grateful the visitors had only Mbwana Samatta’s header to show for their second-half efforts. Colombian Lerma has now picked up a staggering 39 yellow cards in his last 78 league games but manager Howe (celebrating with Ryan Fraser, far left) insists he will not try and tame the midfielder. He said: “How can you change a player when that is probably his biggest strength? “How can you change him to be someone that he is not? You’re going to take away his main asset.”