YANN THE MAN FOR CHERRIES
YANN Kermorgant has taken a while to warm up in a Bournemouth shirt but boss Eddie Howe insists he can turn the Cherries into the complete package after his stunning hat-trick.
The striker, who made the move from Charlton on deadline day, was handed his first start against Doncaster.
He kicked off the goal-rush with a double in the first half and added another after the break, while Harry Arter also bagged a double for the hosts.
Two of Kermorgant’s goals were headers but Howe, who also singled out his side’s clean sheet, does not view the Frenchman as a typical targetman.
“Yann added a different dimension like you hope he would,” he said.“He’s technically very good, we didn’t want to bring in a one-dimensional player.
“What we don’t want to do is take away from out footballing principles and launch balls up the field to him and play the percentages.
“Although he is a tall lad, he is technically very good and can play with his feet and he is good with his chest and he’ll fit our style of play which we felt was very important.
“The really important goals from my perspective are his aerial presence from headers, which is something we’ve lacked this season, and those were two headed goals of high quality.
“We have worked really hard on our defending over the last couple of weeks and I’m not a type of coach who’s okay with conceding goals if we win – it was a great effort all-round.”
Ryan Fraser wasted little time in making an impact for the Cherries as the winger swung a ball into the path of Kermorgant, who could only head into Sam Johnstone’s chest.
He then forced a fine save from Johnstone before breaking the offside trap – only for Bongani Khumalo to put in a last-ditch tackle.
From the ensuing corner Johnstone was again tested through Andrew Surman and then Kermorgant, before the veteran forward sidefooted his first of the day through the keeper’s legs.
The Manchester United loanee was soon called into action once more and this time kept out Kermorgant, who had combined neatly with Fraser.
However the back of the net burst again just before the break, Kermorgant nodding a simple header home after being picked out by Simon Francis.
Arter made it three moments after the interval with a sumptuous strike from the edge of the area as Donny crossed the point of no return.
It was left for Kermorgant to grab his treble with an expertlytaken header, while Arter added the gloss with a fine volley.
Donny boss Paul Dickov refused to search for excuses – before vowing to return to winning ways as the relegation battle well and truly heats up.
“Our performance was unacceptable from start to finish. We have 13 games left and they are massive games,” he said.
“I have to apologise to our fans. They've come a long way and we have let them down.
“I am all the more disappointed before I felt we had a chance of getting something out of this match but we had to change our gameplan early in the match and never recovered.
“We were all over the place defensively. Bournemouth's front two caused us all sorts of problems.
“We need to get back to the standards we have set ourselves earlier in the season because we have taken a hammering.
“When you’ve got ten players who have had an off-day you are going to struggle, except for Sam Johnstone, as it could have been a lot more if it wasn’t for him.”