Full time: Bournemouth 2-0 Swansea City
Peep peep! That’s an excellent and deserved win for Bournemouth. The game was pretty even until Alfie Mawson’s unfortunate own goal, but after that they were largely in control and deserve the cushion given them by Benik Afobe’s goal. They are nine points clear of the Championship Penthouse and should be safe for another season. A subdued Swansea have plenty of work to do. Thanks for your company, night.
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90+3 min Wilshere hits one straight at Fabianski from inside the D. And that should be that.
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90+2 min Eddie Howe gifts Max Gradel a win bonus, bringing him on for the excellent Josh King. He didn’t score but played a significant part in both goals.
90 min There will be three minutes of added formality.
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87 min The game is petering out. Bournemouth have been excellent today. They deserve so much praise for the way they have got back on track since that diabolical first 20 minutes at Old Trafford a fortnight ago.
84 min If it stays like this it will be Bournemouth’s first clean sheet since... their 3-0 win at Swansea on New Year’s Eve.
82 min Another Swansea change: Borja Baston replace Llorente, who had little joy all night.
81 min “What about, ‘Hull, Middlesborough and Sunderland currently occupy the Sunderland Memorial Bench’?” offers Matt Dony.
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79 min Fabianski makes a magnificent save to deny King! Wilshere stood up a lovely deep cross to the far post, where King soared above Kingsley and thumped a header towards the bottom corner. He was only six yards out but Fabianski showed brilliant reflexes to get down to his left and keep it out. There won’t be many better saves than that in the Premier League this season.
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78 min “Maybe we should give the bottom three a boost of confidence,” says Hubert O’Hearn. “May I suggest ‘Championship Penthouse’?”
77 min Cork flattens Afobe and is booked.
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76 min “Regarding the relegation zone,” says Ian Copestake, “perhaps it can simply be called’the toilet’.”
75 min A Bournemouth change: Jack Wilshere replaces the impressive Fraser.
The two strikers combined to make the goal. King picked up a loose ball 25 yards goal and opened his body to play an angled pass to Afobe. The stretching Mawson missed his attempted interception and Afobe took the ball in his stride before sidefooting it across Fabianski and in off the post. That’s an excellent finish.
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GOAL! Bournemouth 2-0 Swansea (Afobe 72)
This is definitely Benik Afobe’s goal!
70 min Routledge’s chipped cross is pulled down nicely by Llorente, who somehow manufactures a low cross from the byline. Narsingh is tackled at the near post and the ball ricochets towards Routledge, who has followed up the play and is about to start his shooting motion when Cook stretches to make a vital, probably goal-saving tackle. All of a sudden Bournemouth are hanging on.
68 min This is Swansea’s best spell of the half by a distance, with a couple of corners and a wee snifter of hope. Carroll’s long cross is headed back across goal by Llorente and cleared desperately by a combination of Afobe and Francis.
67 min Another Swansea change: Wayne Routledge replaces Ki.
66 min Bloody hell, an email! “Yeah some great stuff on that channel,” says Phil Podolsky. “You don’t have to be ‘Romerio’ to score that goal but it sure looks better when he does it.”
I’ve never seen a better one-on-one finisher. Scoring a goal wasn’t good enough for him. He had to vaccinate the keeper, and ideally a defender or two, as well.
65 min Carroll is fouled just outside the area. It’s a fair way to the left of centre but certainly not out of range for Sigurdsson. He strolls up to the ball ... and hits it into the wall.
62 min Bournemouth are moving the ball around beautifully now. They are such an admirable side who didn’t compromise even when they were in freefall. If they win today they won’t be worrying about relegation so much as looking at the chance of finishing in the top ten.
58 min Fabianski miskicks to Fraser and then saves his long-range shot. Bournemouth have the game under control at the moment and look the much likelier scorers. Swansea have been poor since half-time.
56 min A Swansea change: the ineffective Ayew off, Luciano Narsingh on.
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53 min That’s more like it. King nicks the ball off Ki and gives it Gosling, who moves forward and cracks a good low shot from 20 yards that is pushed round by the diving Fabianski.
52 min It hasn’t been a great start to the second half. In fact, the square root of bugger all has happened in the last five minutes.
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47 min Ayew makes a positive run down the right before he is pulled down by Daniels. Nothing comes of the free-kick.
46 min Peep peep! Swansea begin the second half, kicking from left to right.
Half-time reading
Half time: Bournemouth 1-0 Swansea
Peep peep! A quiet end to an interesting half between two confident sides. Bournemouth lead through Unlucky Alf’s own goal. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
41 min Smith curls the resulting free-kick straight into the friendly bosom of Fabianski.
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40 min Ki is booked for a late tackle on Fraser. He knew. It was an honest attempt to get the ball but he was beaten by Fraser’s cartoon pace. He looks really promising, with his direct running and crossing technique. I’m telling you, Scotland are slowly putting a team together.
38 min If it stays like this Bournemouth will be nine points clear of the relegation places. Don’t call it the drop zone. Please don’t call it that. This isn’t The Crystal Maze.
36 min A lovely attempt from Sigurdsson. He received the ball 30 yards out, looked around as if nothing was going on, and then suddenly whipped a wonderful dipping effort towards the far corner. Boruc flew across his line to tip it behind for a corner. I think it would have hit the outside of the post anyway but Boruc made sure.
The goal was made by King and Pugh, who played a good one-two 25 yards from goal. Afobe then took the ball off King’s feet, charged towards the edge of the box and mishit a low shot that took a big deflection off Mawson. I think that might be an own goal; I’m not sure Afobe’s shot was on target.
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GOAL! Bournemouth 1-0 Swansea (Mawson own goal 31)
Benik Afobe gives Bournemouth the lead with the aid of a huge deflection!
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27 min It’s been a decent game, with both teams bright and breezy in possession, but it’s getting to the stage where it could do with a goal.
24 min From the resulting corner, Carroll’s shot hits the arm of Pugh to prompt an unsuccessful penalty appeal. Pugh’s arms were up and, though he was barely a yard from Carroll, that could easily have been given - especially by Mike Dean.
23 min Kingsley is fouled by Smith on the left wing. Sigurdsson’s superb inswinging free-kick skims off the head of King and flashes this far wide of the far post. King is in the goals at the moment but that would have been ridiculous.
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18 min Swansea have been the better team in the last 10 minutes. As Martin Keown says on BT, having three against two in midfield is really helping Swansea.
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15 min A half-chance at the other end. The lively Fraser puts a beautiful dipping cross onto the head of Afobe, whose diving header goes a few yards wide of the far post.
14 min Fer’s long throw from the right is headed down precisely by Llorente to Sigurdsson, who bangs a volley over the bar from 15 yards. That was half a chance for a player of Sigurdsson’s technical quality.
13 min Swansea enjoy a few minutes of largely uninterrupted possession. If we get an early goal, this could be a cracker.
10 min A good effort from Fraser. He scurries forward, away from Carroll, and drags a low shot not far wide from the edge of the box.
9 min Swansea are starting to come into the game after a very sluggish start. Sigurdsson curls in a very good free-kick from a deep, narrow position on the right, and the stretching Mawson heads well wide of the far post. He couldn’t get over the ball to control the header.
6 min Smith’s cross deflects into the face of Sigurdsson and behind for the first corner. Surman takes it short to Fraser, who cross is intercepted by Carroll.
3 min The in-form King nicks possession just outside the area before blasting high and wide. Swansea have barely had a kick so far.
2 min This is a confident start from Bournemouth. Pugh moves smoothly round the back on the left before stabbing a cross that is cleared at the near post.
1 min Peep peep! Bournemouth, in red and black, kick off from left to right. Swansea are in white. It looks like Swansea are playing with Leroy Fer as an emergency right-back.
A gift, from me to you.
Team news
Bournemouth (4-4-2) Boruc; Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels; Fraser, Surman, Gosling, Pugh; King, Afobe.
Substitutes: Allsop, Cargill, Smith, Ibe, Wilshere, Cook, Gradel.
Swansea (4-3-3) Fabianski; Fer, Fernandez, Mawson, Kingsley; Cork, Ki, Carroll; Ayew, Llorente, Sigurdsson.
Substitutes: Nordfeldt, Roberts, Amat, Routledge, Britton, Narsingh, Baston.
Referee Mike Dean.
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Preamble
Hello. Some games are bigger than others. This match, between the teams who started the day in 14th and 16th place, has been described as a six-pointer. It’s no such thing - you don’t need to be a distant relation of Archimedes to know you can’t have a six-pointer if there are more than two teams involved in a race for something - but it’s a pretty important match, especially with Leicester and Crystal Palace winning.
Two weeks ago, Swansea would have been favourites to win at the Vitality Stadium. Since then they have lost at Hull and Bournemouth have stopped free fallin’. I haven’t a clue what’s going to happen. Nor have you. We’ll find out from 5.30pm.
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