Bournemouth 0-1 Hull City: Ryan Longman strike earns Hull back-to-back wins

Ryan Longman scores against Bournemouth for Hull CityImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Longman's second-half strike was his third goal of the season for Hull

Ryan Longman's second-half strike secured Hull City victory over Bournemouth, to cap an impressive week as the club's takeover was confirmed.

Emiliano Marcondes hit the post while Dominic Solanke sent two headers wide as the second-placed Cherries dominated but couldn't find the back of the net.

Tom Eaves also had a long-range shot tipped over the bar for the visitors before Longman's strike secured the three points.

Hull's win followed another over promotion rivals Blackburn Rovers in midweek. while Bournemouth have now fallen eight points behind Fulham, who won 3-2 at Stoke, at the top of the Championship.

Bournemouth came into the match on the back of a disappointing run that had seen them only win twice in their past nine matches.

Hull, by contrast, were buoyed by midweek news of the club's takeover by the Turkey-based Acun Medya Group, and their morale-boosting victory over Rovers ended a six-match winless streak.

Cherries manager Scott Parker made three changes to the team that lost in the last minute to Luton a week ago - including dropping defender Gary Cahill to the bench - and will have been left scratching his head as to how his side weren't two or three goals ahead after the opening period.

Solanke sent a header wide of the post early on that should have been on target, before Jacob Greaves blocked a shot from Marcondes.

Marcondes then hit the post, Hull keeper Nathan Baxter made a one-handed save from a Solanke strike and the latter then sent a second header wide.

The traffic was so one way it took until the 44th minute for the Tigers to record a shot as Longman forced a save from Mark Travers.

But a revived Hull started the second half as Bournemouth did in the first.

Keane Lewis-Potter had a curling shot pushed wide by Travers, who then had to stretch high to push Eaves' effort from distance over the bar when it was dipping under.

Substitute Jaidon Anthony gave Bournemouth more threat in attack as Marcondes forced Baxter into another save, but they couldn't make their opportunities count.

Longman then broke the deadlock after 77 minutes, picking up the ball on the edge of the box, cutting inside and striking around Travers.

Bournemouth boss Scott Parker told BBC Radio Solent:

"We lacked conviction. We lacked everything we stand for and everything I want my team to stand for.

"In the first half we were brilliant, we played very well. The one criticism is we didn't score the goal that our chances deserved. It was pure domination.

"In the second half it was a totally different team. Today is a real wake-up call for me.

"You can lose football matches but sometimes there's a way to lose. I didn't like anything about us in the second half."

Hull City manager Grant McCann:

"This is a very tough place to come - only lost here twice I believe this season. They've been so strong at home. We had to be really good, we had to be disciplined, we had to be organised.

"Bournemouth were strong in the first half, of course they were - we were probably a bit fortunate to come in at 0-0.

"We made a couple of switches at half-time. We tried to get our centre-halves to be more aggressive against their number eights. We got our wing-backs to be a bit more on the front foot against their full-backs and I thought we got a bit more control in the game.

"We had a couple of really good chances in the first three minutes of the second half, and the one big moment we get it's a great finish from Ryan Longman."

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