Newcastle snatch improbable Premier League win at Bournemouth

LONDON (Reuters) – Newcastle United earned an important and highly improbable Premier League victory at Bournemouth on Saturday, snatching a 1-0 victory completely against the run of play thanks to a first half Ayoze Perez goal.

Fans of the struggling home team at Dean Court could hardly credit what they felt was daylight robbery in the pouring rain as Bournemouth dominated proceedings, only to be thwarted by poor finishing and tremendous goalkeeping from Newcastle’s Rob Elliot.

In a first half of one-way traffic in atrocious conditions, with Bournemouth raining 12 shots on the Newcastle goal, the visitors picked off the hosts with their only meaningful attack after 27 minutes.

A couple of intricate flicks from Aleksandar Mitrovic and then Georginio Wijnaldum helped set up the unmarked Spaniard Ayoze to fire home past Adam Federici, who got a hand to the ball but could not prevent it trickling into the net.

Bournemouth pressed constantly for an equaliser but were denied largely by the brilliant efforts of Elliot, who made a series of fine saves to ensure Newcastle prevailed on the road after 12 away matches without a win.

The victory enabled Newcastle to leapfrog Bournemouth near the foot of the table, pushing them out of the relegation zone with 10 points from 12 games and plunging the south coast side into the bottom three still with eight points.

(Editing by Ken Ferris)