THE VERDICT: TOWN 1 BOURNEMOUTH 2 Town just have to find way to win a few games!
LET’S be honest, defeat was to be expected. And while Huddersfield Town will be hugely disappointed to have handed Bournemouth their two first-half goals, there was enough to like about their second-half showing to suggest Carlos Corberan has something to work with over the final five games of the season.
Another loss, especially one on home turf, will have done little to convince increasingly agitated Terriers fans that this is a side on the up, and they will need to be better in their remaining games if they are to give themselves at least a slight uptick in form to take into the summer.
But this – especially the second half – was at least an improvement on the terrible performances in the 7-0 defeat to Norwich City and the extremely lucky goalless draw against Rotherham United, but at the same time Bournemouth barely had to break their stride to breeze to a two-goal by half time.
Both of those goals were gifted to the visitors by the Terriers, who tried admirably hard to stay composed and make things happen after their awful recent showings but had their errors seized upon by a clinical and in-form Bournemouth side.
Town had started the game reasonably well – not great, but OK – and even created a chance to open the scoring, with Lewis O’Brien driving forward with the ball from his nominal left-back berth and slipping in left winger Aaron Rowe to cut inside and test Asmir Begovic at the near post.
Bournemouth responded by taking the lead just three minutes later. Town lost the ball on halfway and makeshift rightback Rarmani EdmondsGreen did not do enough to hold off Arnaut Danjuma, allowing him to squeeze in a shot to the near post.
Ryan Schofield kept that out with his feet, but former Terrier Philip Billing met the rebound with a diving header that found the net.
It took the hosts a few minutes to regain their cool after that opener with Bournemouth applying the pressure in search of a second, but they looked like they were going to finish the first half in decent shape and go for the equaliser in the second half when they suddenly handed their opponents a second goal.
Edmonds-Green misplaced what should have been a straightforward pass for Jonathan Hogg but instead went straight to the alert Ben Pearson, who quickly picked out Solanke before Town could react to allow the striker to turn and pile the ball past Schofield.
O’Brien got forward well again shortly after the break, getting into
Begovic, Smith, Carter-Vickers, Steve Cook, Kelly, Pearson, Lerma, Brooks, Billing, Danjuma, Solanke. Subs: Mepham, Wilshere, Surridge, Stacey, Stanislas, Riquelme, Rico, Travers, Anthony.
the box off a beautiful backheeled one-two with Rowe before rattling the crossbar with a fierce shot that nobody expected.
The introductions of wingers Rolando Aarons and Sorba Thomas at and shortly after the break respectively came at the cost of moving Rowe to rightback in place of the struggling Edmonds-Green, but did at least force Bournemouth to finally break a sweat to try and repel the new-found energy of the hosts.
A Thomas run up the right forced the corner from which Town put themselves back in contention, with Duane Holmes delivering the ball onto Hogg’s head to score his first competi