DOM HAS A CHERRY GOOD DAY
DOMINIC SOLANKE is desperate to stick it to the pundits and prove Bournemouth will swim not sink.
Not many tipped the Cherries to stay up after they lost 9-0 at
Liverpool and sent Scott Parker into brief exile in Belgium.
Nor when they upgraded Gary
O’Neil to head coach and then had no wins in seven matches.
But when Solanke forced home the winner in a crowded goalmouth Bournemouth earned their third victory in six matches to move out of the relegation zone.
“I think there’s a lot of people who probably don’t believe we can do it,” said the former Liverpool striker.
“But we’ve got all the belief we need in the changing room.
“We know how strong our squad is, a lot of players have come back from injury so that can help us as well. Things are looking good.
“I think it’s natural when people are down on you that you want to prove them wrong. So we’ll be looking forward to the last few games and making sure that we do the job.”
Andreas Pereira put Fulham ahead but a magnificent strike from Marcus Tavernier — which dipped and curled past startled keeper Bernd Leno — levelled things up before Solanke bundled home 11 minutes from time.
Locker
“I didn’t know he had that in his locker!” added Solanke of Tavernier. “It was such a good finish — crazy.”
The hard edge on display in Bournemouth’s comeback is also echoed by O’Neil’s steely ruthlessness in his first managerial job.
Kieffer Moore and Chris Mepham had basked in the compliments gained from Wales’ impressive draw in Croatia and victory over Latvia at their start of their Euros qualifying campaign.
But there must have been something in their attitude on their return that irritated O’Neil, who left both players out of his squad.
“You have a choice as a footballer whether you stay with the group or whether you decide that your own agenda is what you want to do and is more important,” said O’Neil.
“You have a choice as a footballer for how you want to handle things.
“We have a huge squad full of senior players at this moment, everyone’s fit, so we are going to have to disappoint some.
“I’m pretty sure it won’t be the same ones all the time.”
Meanwhile, if Marco Silva had been as calm about Willian’s handball at Old Trafford as he was towards the photographers buzzing around in Bournemouth, then Fulham’s season might not be imploding.
The Fulham manager had cameras up his nose for most of the game, but kept his cool and claimed afterwards not to have even noticed.
Asked about the extra attention, a coy Silva replied: “The spotlight was on me, yes? I didn’t see the photographers. I didn’t notice that.
“Being on the touchline was completely the same, completely the same thing and I didn’t feel it.”
Silva has been charged with abusive behaviour towards match officials and Willian and Aleksandar Mitrovic are serving bans after the mother of meltdowns in Manchester.
Fulham were slick and stress-free for half an hour, went 1-0 up, but had no response when Bournemouth roused themselves in the secondhalf. This defeat mads it four on the bounce.
“We lost control of the game,” added Silva. “We switched off completely, we were punished by that and it was sloppy.”
BOURNEMOUTH (4-4-1-1): Neto 6; Smith 6, Stephens 6, Senesi 6, Kelly 7; Ouattara 6 (Christie 46, 8), Rothwell 7 (Traore 72), Lerma 6, Anthony 6 (TAVERNIER 46, 8); Billing 7; Solanke 7 (Semenyo 90). Subs: Cook, Brooks, Vina, Zabarnyi, Travers. FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno 6; Tete 6 (Soares 82), Diop 6, Ream 7, Robinson 6; Reed 6 (Cairney 69, 6), Palhinha 7 (Wilson 88); Decordova-Reid 7 (James 69, 6), Pereira 8 (Lukic 82), Solomon 7; Vinicius 6. Subs: Rodak, Adarabioyo, Duffy, Francois. REFEREE: Peter Bankes 7.