Bournemouth 3-2 Bristol City: Cherries boost promotion hopes

Bournemouth came from a goal down to beat Bristol City and keep on track for promotion from the Championship.

They finally found a way through a disciplined Bristol City defence when Dominic Solanke tapped in Jordan Zemura’s cross from close range shortly before the break.

A rare Lewis Cook goal put Bournemouth in front shortly after the restart before Siriki Dembele’s excellent individual goal wrapped up the three points late on.

Andreas Weimann pulled a goal back in stoppage time to set up a nervous finish, but Bournemouth held on.

The second-placed Cherries are six points clear of third-placed Huddersfield with three games in hand as they aim to end a two-season absence from the Premier League, while City remain in 18th place.

The disciplined visitors did well to limit Bournemouth as they hunted for an equaliser – Solanke, Nat Phillips and Zemura all had good chances before their best effort saw Philip Billing’s shot across the face goal just evade Ryan Christie.

Having had 80% of the first-half possession and with 12 shots to City’s one, Bournemouth finally found a way past their opponents as Solanke scored for the fourth successive game and his 25th of the season.

Bournemouth should have been ahead a couple of minutes after half-time as Jefferson Lerma lifted the ball over Dan Bentley but Solanke’s effort was cleared off the line by Atkinson.

The Cherries only had to wait a couple of minutes to go ahead as Cook smashed in a low effort from 30 yards for just his second goal in more than five-and-a-half years at Dean Court.

City felt they should have had a penalty when Chris Martin appeared to be fouled by Lloyd Kelly, while Bournemouth almost put the game to bed when Bentley did well to stop Jaidon Anthony one-on-one after the Cherries attacker had broken through.

Nigel Pearson’s side could have levelled had Mark Travers not saved Martin’s close-range effort superbly with his legs with 15 minutes to go, and they were made to pay when Dembele superbly dribbled past a host of Robins defenders before a calm finish.

Tommy Conway’s superb run set up Weimann to tap in late on for a consolation goal that Bristol City’s endeavour probably deserved.

Bournemouth head coach Scott Parker told BBC Radio Solent:

“I thought we played very well, I thought first half we were very good, and even second half the way we came out we were very good.

“They scored an early goal at a set play that gave them an impetus and gave them something to hold on to.

“But I thought my team stuck to their principles, stuck to the way they needed to go about their game and were well worthy of our equaliser.

“We got the third and then their second makes it edgy, but overall we were well worthy of the three points today.”

Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:

“We were gutsy and committed. Yes we’ve conceded three goals, which is not something that we want, but I recognise that we’re playing against a lot of quality out there today.

“I thought in the first half we defended very well and with a lot of discipline, as the game opened up in the second half I have to accept there are going to be occasions when they open us up and look dangerous.

“But I thought we continued to cause them problems in the second half when it opened up a bit, it’s a risk you have to take when you’re trying to get back into it.

“Once we’d gone behind it was always important that we tried to at least open the game up a bit more and I thought we looked dangerous throughout today.”