Impressive Warriors left back Jordan Zemura’s assist in the dying minutes of the championship encounter on Saturday at the Vitality Stadium helped his side Bournemouth to a crucial 2-1 come back victory against Stoke City.
Initially, it was the visitors Stoke City who drew first blood courtesy of Tommy Smith who broke the deadlock with exactly 20 minutes into the league match.
However, City went on to suffer a huge blow 12 minutes after taking the lead as they were reduced to 10 men.
This comes after a straight red card was shown to their left back Morgan Fox in the 32 minutes for a bad challenge on Bournemouth’s forward Philip Billing.
The match went into halftime with Stoke in front though with a man down but this was before the Cherries found two late second half goals through Dominic Solanke and Jamal Lowe respectively.
Solanke headed home in the 83rd minute to help Bournemouth get the equaliser.
Thereafter, the best moment of the match came when the Zimbabwean international defender provided a late assist for Lowe who netted the winner in the 89th minute to help the promotion chasing team to record their fourth successive win over City.
The Vitality Stadium was sent into ecstasy when the highly rated Zemura fired in a low cross which resulted in the second and winning goal for the Cherries who are now seated second on the log with 61 points and two games in hand.
According to player ratings published on the club’s website, the 23-year-old defender was rated 7/10 for his performance.
“Jordan Zemura. Didn’t tuck in time to prevent Smith’s strike and was loose with the ball in the first half. On the hour mark, Scott Parker called Zemura over and made him play higher and wider, essentially acting as a left-winger for the final half an hour,” wrote the Bournemouth newsletter.
“Zemura had a lot of the ball, completing the most passes of any player on the pitch in the opening hour (62). Integral to Lowe’s winner. Timed the angle of his run into the box to perfection, crossing for ecstasy to fill the Vitality air moments later.”
Bournemouth manager Scott Parker was delighted with the hard fought victory.
“From the minute the whistle goes until it ends we’re always in games no matter what, and that’s the most powerful thing about today,” he told the BBC after the match.
“I thought the crowd were a bit edgy in the first half and that translated on to the pitch. That’s not a criticism of the fans or the stadium because I understand that’s where we are, and I understand the desperation for us to win games and do well.
“We tried to address that at half-time and explain to our players that we stick to our way, we go about what we do and keep consistent to that because that’s the way we’re going to win games – and I thought second half we did that very well.”
But on the other hand, his counterpart Stoke City’s manager Michael O’Neill said his team was the better side and deserved a point or even a win.
He bemoaned Smith’s red card for their defeat and also questioned Zemura’s challenge on Jacob Brown indicating that he deserved to be sent off because it was a similar challenge to that of (Smith).
“We deserved to take something from the game. We were the better side up to the red card, deserved to go one ahead and could possibly have been more than one ahead, but the red card changes everything.
“What we gave with 10 men, given it’s our third game in a week against a team that hasn’t played for two weeks, I thought the effort of the team was fantastic and ultimately we just couldn’t hang on against a very good team.
“Zemura’s challenge on Jacob Brown was no different to Morgan’s challenge [on Philip Billing]. Neither are red cards, but to give a red card and to give the other one as a thrown-in to the opposition is staggering,” he told the BBC. Nehanda Radio
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