KEEPING UP
BOURNEMOUTH proved they had a Plan B just when they needed it most to keep their Cinderella story rolling on – and all but end Ipswich Town’s automatic promotion hopes.
Eddie Howe’s men have earned plaudits throughout this most thrilling Championship campaign with goals galore and free-flowing football.
But against an Ipswich side moulded on hard work, grit and often substance over style, they had to relinquish their creative tendencies and unleash Kenwyne Jones, whose bullet 82nd-minute header earned his new team-mates a deserved point.
Howe praised his side’s ‘Plan B’ approach and also the impact of Jones who signed from Cardiff City ten days ago and took just three minutes to make his mark from the bench.
The Bournemouth boss said: “I wanted to change things as in the second half we got mixed up and were made to play more direct.
“Kenwyne is always going to be a presence but he is more than that. Kenwyne can be very important for us and he scored a very unBournemouth goal if you like.
“It might be these types of games and these scorelines where he makes his biggest impact.
“I was delighted as we don’t come back from losing positions very often, but I still think we should have won the game had we been more clinical in front of goal.
“Their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves, but we were actually wasteful.”
Ipswich, who any regular viewer knows are much more than the longball merchants they have been tagged with, had gone ahead with six minutes on the clock.
Strike partners Daryl Murphy and Freddie Sears were both allowed too much space in the Bournemouth box, the latter stroking the ball home following Murphy’s precise pass.
Back came Bournemouth but their astute passing and dangerous counters were either blocked by some outstanding individual displays – Ipswich’s Polish keeper Bartosz Bialkowski doing his bit – or, too often, by their own men in red and black taking tumbles when it seemed simpler and more danger--