Bournemouth vs West Brom match report: Matt Ritchie salvages a point as Baggies' winless run goes on
Bournemouth 1 West Brom 1
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Your support makes all the difference.When the Premier League fixtures for the 2015-16 season were published, this must have looked like a vital game for Bournemouth – perhaps a last chance to gain much-need points in an anticipated battle against relegation among a sequence of matches against contenders for European places.
As things have turned out, Eddie Howe's men have effectively been safe for a while, and perhaps it was just as well that they did not need anything from this game. Second-best throughout to a West Bromwich Albion side who could have been excused for having their minds on beaches more distant than those of nearby Boscombe, they trailed to an early goal by Salomon Rondon, Albion's Venezuelan striker, and were indebted to Artur Boruc, their goalkeeper, who made a double save from a penalty by Craig Gardner. The other man they had to thank was Claudio Yacob, the Albion midfield player, whose error late on gave substitute Matt Ritchie an equaliser that Bournemouth scarcely deserved.
The point ended a run of three successive defeats for the Dorset club but Howe will know that changes will need to be made to his squad in summer if things are not to more closely-run next season. “I want to grow the club and the only way is to stay in the Premier League,” he said. “We evaluate the squad game by game and day by day.”
Albion manager Tony Pulis, a former Bournemouth player and manager who still lives in nearby Poole, hopes to extend his contract with the Baggies, which still has a year to run, and he will be wondering how his players failed to take all three points. At least he could console himself with the thought that he would be home early. “I think we deserved to win,” he said. “The players' attitude was very good but we needed Gardner to score to put us 2-0 up.”
Rondon's opener began when Boruc sent a miskicked clearance straight to Albion youngster Jonathan Leko, making only his second start. He sent the ball out to Jonny Evans on the left and the Northern Ireland defender's cross was nodded firmly past Boruc by Rondon as he muscled his way past Steve Cook.
Boruc, though, made up for his error when he dived to his right to fingertip aside a curling left-foot shot by Gardner then did even better when Tommy Elphick was deemed by Mark Clattenburg, the referee, to have pulled back Craig Dawson as they went for a corner-kick. Gardner's penalty was too central and the Polish goalkeeper pushed the ball against the crossbar, then leapt backwards to scoop it to safety when Cook's attempted clearance hit Gardner and looped towards the empty net.
Little was seen of the Bournemouth attack, even after Howe sent on Callum Wilson and Josh King to give them an injection of pace. Both put decent chances wide soon after their introduction, but Rondon, with a header, and substitute Saido Berahino, with a blocked shot, might have doubled Albion's lead. Instead Albion paid for failing to score a second goal as Bournemouth found an unlikely equaliser when Yacob back-headed Cook's long throw-in from the left into his own goalmouth where Ritchie nodded in.
Even then Albion had a chance to win it, but Dawson's shot across Boruc rebounded from the outside of the far post. Howe said he was “very relieved not to lose. Everyone would have thought West Brom at home was a very winnable game but there is no such thing in this division. they are tough to score against. The difference between the Premier League and the Championship is huge.”
AFC Bournemouth (4-4-2): Boruc; Francis, Elphick, Cook, Daniels; Stanislas (Ritchie 73), Arter, Surman, Gradel (King 60); Grabban, Afobe (Wilson 60).
West Bromwich Albion (4-4-1-1): Foster; Dawson, McAuley, Olsson, Evans; Leko (Sandro 86), Fletcher, Yacob, McClean; Gardner (Berahino 73); Rondon.
Referee: M Clattenburg.
Man of the match: Rondon (WBA)
Match rating: 5/10.
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