B’mouth 0 – 1 Hull City

Ryan Longman scored an excellent late goal to put another dent in Bournemouth’s automatic promotion hopes and lead Hull to a 1-0 win at the Vitality Stadium.

Longman struck 13 minutes from time after Bournemouth had been frustrated by a combination of wasteful finishing and good goalkeeping from Hull’s Nathan Baxter.

Scott Parker’s side dominated the first half and could have taken the lead with just 48 seconds on the clock.

Baxter hammered his clearance against the on-rushing Dominic Solanke and the ball could have gone anywhere before looping over the crossbar.

In the 12th minute, Leif Davis’ long through ball was controlled neatly on the chest by Solanke who then tried to round Baxter, but the Hull goalkeeper did well to claw the ball away.

Solanke should have scored a minute later but could only head wide from eight yards from an inviting Ryan Christie cross.

Solanke turned provider on the quarter-hour mark, getting to the byline before pulling the ball back for Emiliano Marcondes to force another smart save from Baxter with a drilled effort.

Hull were saved by the woodwork in the 17th minute when Marcondes clipped the outside of the post with a side-foot shot after being teed up by Philip Billing.

Seconds later, Baxter made a fantastic save to push away Solanke’s shot from point-blank range after the former Liverpool player had turned neatly on the edge of the six-yard box.

Solanke also headed wide from Davis’ centre as the home side continued to put pressure on the Hull defence.

Hull took until two minutes before half-time to register an attempt on goal when Randell Williams saw his cross-cum-shot pushed wide by flying Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers.

The visitors made a brighter start to the second half with Keane Lewis-Potter driving a shot over the bar seconds after the restart.

Lewis-Potter then saw his low effort from the edge of the penalty area turned around the left-hand post by Republic of Ireland international Travers.

Travers made another excellent save in the 49th minute to divert Tom Eaves’ rasping long-range shot behind for a corner.

Bournemouth struggled to match their attacking intensity from the first half, epitomised by Solanke’s tame header into the gloves of Baxter in the 62nd minute.

Hull took the lead 15 minutes later courtesy of Brighton loanee Longman’s fourth goal of the season.

Tom Eaves played the ball into the feet of Longman, who cut in from the left onto his right foot and curled past Travers and into the top corner.

Hull manager Grant McCann, who faces a crunch meeting with new owner Acun Ilicali next week to decide his future, barely reacted to the goal.

Marcondes’ 25-yard free-kick over the crossbar was as close as Bournemouth came to equalising.

The Cherries are now eight points behind league leaders Fulham.

What the managers said…

Bournemouth’s Scott Parker: “There are certain things I want my players to stand for, certain things I stood for as a player and as a man. The second half was nowhere near what I want my team to look like. It is a wake-up call for all of us. The whole second half was mind-boggling after having 15 shots in the first half. The game of football is 90 minutes long and today we only turned up for 45.

“I am not hurt that we lost. I am hurt in the way we lost and in the way we performed in the second half. I can accept bad play and missing chances but when the game swung a little bit we did not react to it. There are certain traits I did not like. It is my job and my responsibility to get that right. I hope the players will reflect tonight and understand there is a certain
ingredient I want from my team and want from individuals.”

Hull’s Grant McCann: “I am here to speak about the game today. I don’t know what is going to happen next week. I am pleased with my players taking six points in a week from the teams second and third in the table. It is a fantastic result. Bournemouth is a very tough place to come.

“In the first half we had to ride our luck a little bit. We could not get to grips with Marcondes and Billing and their movement and had to change it a bit tactically at half-time. We were a bit more aggressive in the second half and stopped them playing out from the back.”