WILSHERE SHOWS NO MERCY:

WILSHERE ‘SHOCKED’ BY GOAL AS CRAWLEY CUP RUN ENDED

JACK WILSHERE rolled back the years to help fire Bournemouth into the fifth round and end the FA Cup dream of giant-killers Crawley.

Wilshere scored a brilliant goal on his first start since returning to Bournemouth with Josh King getting the winner after Tom Nichols had equalised for the League Two side.

“I forgot how to celebrate,” joked Wilshere. “I was a bit shocked. From a personal point of view it was just a pleasure to be back starting a game.

“Last time I was here I didn’t score and it didn’t sit well with me.”

With the tie moved from the weekend after a Covid outbreak at Crawley, the only training the squad had done since thrashing Leeds 3-0 in the third round was fitness sessions on Zoom.

It showed as the Cherries were much too sharp for John Yems’ side in the first half. Yems tore into Bournemouth ahead of kick-off, accusing them of “betrayal” over his sacking as football operations manager in 2018.

The Cherries hit back with a statement of their own, saying Yems’ comments were “misleading and “inaccurate”.

Arnaut Danjuma was a livewire on the left and saw an early shot well saved by Glenn Morris.

Philip Billing then thumped a header against the post from David Brooks’ corner. But a brilliant move was finished off with a vintage finish from Wilshere, who struck a first-time shot into the corner after brilliant play from Danjuma and Josh King.

Though Bournemouth were dominant, Crawley came out after the break looking far more confident.

Tom Nichols was a whisker away from equalising when Asmir Begovic made a mess of a clearance but the Bosnian stopper recovered quickly to save his own blushes.

But moments later, Nichols was celebrating as Josh Wright’s header reached him at the far post and he scored from close range to leave the Sussex side dreaming of another upset.Those dreams were shattered only six minutes later when Brooks and Danjuma combined to tee up King, who thumped into the far corner.

“I felt we were well in control,” said Bournemouth manager Jason Tindall.

“We created a number of really good opportunities. The disappointing thing was that we didn’t score more.”