Stoke City of England midfielder, John Mikel Obi was back in the thick of action for The Potters, but his efforts could not save them from falling at the feet of Dominic Solanke’s Bournemouth, who climbed to third in the English Championship with a gritty 1-0 away win, megasportsarena.com reports.
Despite Mikel’s sterling efforts and all round contributions in the game at bet365 Stadium, it was the visitors who got the breakthrough after a closely-fought first half, in which Sam Surridge and Solanke came closest to breaking the deadlock for the visitors, with the latter lifting a shot onto the crossbar.
Much to Mikel’s consternation, Bournemouth finally edged ahead when Junior Stanislas latched onto Lewis Cook’s searching ball forward and fired a low shot beyond Stoke goalkeeper Joe Bursik for his seventh goal of the season (79).
With Brentford not in action this weekend, after their game against Bristol City was postponed, the Cherries move above them into third, two points behind second-placed Swansea. Stoke stay eighth, two points outside the top six.
Bournemouth started like a house on fire in the defeat to Brentford on Wednesday but Stoke proved a different prospect altogether and they found it difficult to break them down throughout the first half.
Mikel’s coach, Michael O’Neill would no doubt have been the happier manager at the break, it was, ironically, the Cherries who had gone closest to breaking the deadlock first when Surridge tucked a Diego Rico cross wide of the left-hand post.
Around 20 minutes in, Jordan Thompson rippled the side-netting of former Potters goalkeeper Asmir Begovic’s net with a wicked curling free-kick, moments before Solanke drew Bursik off his line and sent a hopeful shot bouncing off the top of the crossbar.
Bournemouth started the second half with intent, but, as the snow that had coated the surrounding area overnight started to fall once more, the chances almost dried up altogether.
That was until the 79th minute, when the visitors scored what proved to be the winner and it was route-one football at its finest. Cook floated the ball into Stanislas’ path and he judged the bounce perfectly before firing in to get the Cherries back to winning ways, with a fifth clean sheet in six games to boot.
It was a game of few chances, but one that was settled by an impressively-taken goal by Stanislas, as the man of the match managed to stay free from injury so far this term and Bournemouth are reaping the rewards.
