LAST PIPS SQUEEZED OUT OF CHERRIES
BOURNEMOUTH 0 SOUTHAMPTON 2
THE one that got away might just be the one who pulled them under. Not that a shared history with Danny Ings will do anything to further darken the feelings around Eddie Howe and his ship of the damned right now.
It all just looks so horribly bleak for him, for Bournemouth, for the chances of five years in the Premier League becoming six. What’s that old phrase about slim and none, and slim leaving town?
If there is a hope, a scintilla of anything, it is that Watford’s capacity for implosion seems to know no bounds. They have to play Manchester City and Arsenal with another new manager, so maybe, just maybe, the three-point gap can be bridged.
But even that requires some doing. Bournemouth need to win at Everton next weekend and would still rely on Watford losing twice by great enough margins to flip a goal difference of four.
Howe has saved this club before, and from deeper, deadlier valleys, but this would be a monumentally big ask, even if Bournemouth’s form was better than one win in 12.
This match was settled by Ings before Che Adams got a second eight minutes into stoppage time.
Ings’ goal was his 21st in the league this season, his 24th across the competitions, and his sixth in eight games since the restart. A good goal it was, too, from a player who made his professional debut at Bournemouth under Howe 11 years ago and signed for him again at Burnley.
A triviality in the scheme of things; as was the penalty Ings had saved quite brilliantly by Aaron Ramsdale in the second half. If there was any tangible meaning to the miss, it will be limited to his chase for the Golden Boot, but in the context of the wildness of this match, it was just another footnote.
The cruellest act for the Cherries came in stoppage time, when Harry Wilson thought he had equalised, only for the VAR to spot Callum Wilson was offside at a long throw. It was a correct call, but how galling. From there, Southampton had time to score a second through Adams.
Howe looked almost broken by the close. He said: ‘It was a very emotional game in many ways. The lads gave everything. At times we played very well but ultimately our finishing and the last part was just missing.
‘The key is that we are still in it. While it is mathematically possible, you have to believe. Crazier things have happened in football. (But) a big chunk of our destiny was still in our hands today and it has slipped a bit.’
Bournemouth shouldn’t pause too long on this game when they consider those that cost them the most.
If anything, Southampton might have won by more, such was their slickness on the attack.
It speaks well for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s powers of motivation and sits well with the astonishing recovery job he has engineered after the disasters of Southampton’s early form this season.
Hasenhuttl said: ‘Over 50 points is the target now and that is amazing when you see where we were coming from in October and November. It has been a strange season and now we are in a fantastic position.’ All right for some.