Nottingham Forest 2 Bournemouth 3
Steve Cooper was sacked from the club during the week but will always be remembered as the man who brought top-flight football back to the club. Nuno Espirito Santo was the new manager at the helm as Bournemouth visited the City Ground for his first game in charge.
To many, the dismissal seemed harsh on Cooper, especially after the comments of their owner straight after he kept them up last season. Who would have thought how difficult it would be to receive 65 new players and expect to turn them into a Premier League side overnight would be.
Boly was booked early on in the game for a rash challenge on Solanke with the defender having no arguments and just being glad there were defenders between him and the goal to prevent it from it being any worse than a caution.
It didn’t seem to faze the defender as he continued to fly into challenges and after a perfectly timed tackle on the same player, he lunged in to try and beat Smith to the loose ball. The referee did not hesitate in showing him a second yellow card straight away.
Credit: @afcbournemouth
The replay showed that Boly won the ball and in fact The Cherries player stood on his ankle before going to ground. VAR could not get involved due to the insane rules in the modern game and the Forest defender had his marching orders with less than a quarter of the game gone.
Ryan Christie almost opened the scoring when his cross rattled the bar and had Turner in all sorts of trouble. The player will no doubt tell you that he saw the keeper slightly off his line but in reality, the Bournemouth winger was trying to get the ball into the box.
Forest then felt they should have had a penalty when a cross struck the arm of Smith. There was no doubt his arm was in an unnatural position but VAR said they couldn’t find an angle that proved it struck him in the penalty area. This was seeming like it was not going to be Nottingham Forest’s day.
Finally, their luck seemed to change when Wood found Elanga and he slotted home to send the City Ground into raptures. The ten men suddenly felt as though they could get something from this game despite being up against it.
That lasted all of four minutes until Semenyo’s cross found the head of Solanke who glanced it over Turner in the Forest goal. Semenyo then almost gave the visitors the lead but for a great block on the line by Neco Williams.
Santo’s side failed to clear their lines and Solanke finally put Iraola’s side in front when he neatly finished to continue his fine form. It was the former Liverpool striker’s tenth goal of the season and gave the Bournemouth fans something to celebrate.
Credit: @afcbournemouth
Just as things seemed to be going south for the new Forest manager, Chris Wood got his head to a corner and equalised for the hosts to show the sort of doggedness they needed to get themselves away from the bottom three.
The game was now end to end stuff as Brooks met a whipped cross, only to see his effort ricochet off the post. Moments later, Solanke got his first senior hat trick when he headed Smith’s cross into the top corner out of Turner’s grasp, deep into added time.
Bournemouth have turned their season on its head after many thought Andoni Iraola was going to be the first Premier League manager to be sacked this season. Now, he is looking like a good bet to win manager of the month. Fine margins eh.
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