Wee Man a pain in neck for Big Sam

THE Vitality Stadium crowd might have been chanting ‘Wee Man! Wee Man!’ but Ryan Fraser was standing tall after cutting Big Sam down to size and propelling Bournemouth out the relegation zone.

The 5ft 4in Scotland winger was outstanding throughout and his two goals wrecked Sam Allardyce’s unbeaten start at Everton.

Fraser’s mazy dribbles from midfield provided Bournemouth’s principal threat all afternoon, so it was fitting he earned them a crucial win at the death.

Having seen his acrobatic first-half volley cancelled out by Idrissa Gueye, Fraser latched on to a through pass by Adam Smith with just a minute left.

Cutting inside on to his right foot, his shot was heading wide but took a deflection off Michael Keane’s boot to wrong-foot Jordan Pickford and spin into the far corner.

Those who deliberate on such matters may ultimately credit it as a Keane own goal, but nobody inside the shaking stadium cared much as they hailed their diminutive matchwinner.

It was Bournemouth’s first success in nine Premier League games and a smiling Eddie Howe looked relieved afterwards.

‘It would have been really hard on us not to win today,’ said Howe. ‘It was a great feeling when the winner went in. We make it difficult for ourselves and that is where the true character came through. We dominated the game but we gave them a goal. The impressive thing is our ability to keep going.’

Allardyce said: ‘It’s a frustrating way for the unbeaten run to end because we should have avoided both goals. We gifted them two goals.

‘We didn’t get as much out of the attack-minded players as we could have done and our goalscoring abilities are limited.’