Dominic Solanke at the double as Bournemouth ease past Huddersfield

Posted Sunday, December 13, 2020 by PA

Dominic Solanke scored twice as rampant Bournemouth crushed Huddersfield 5-0 to tighten their grip on second place in the Championship table.

David Brooks, Junior Stanislas and Sam Surridge were also on target as the Cherries ran riot at the Vitality Stadium.

Bournemouth, roared on by 1200 returning fans, dominated from start to finish and took only eight minutes to open the scoring courtesy of the in-form Solanke.

Brooks drove at the Huddersfield defence before rolling the ball for Solanke, who chipped his shot over the advancing Ben Hamer and into the net.

Asmir Begovic made a good save to claw away Juninho Bacuna’s long-range effort as Huddersfield went in search of an immediate equaliser.

The visitors gifted Solanke his and Bournemouth’s second in the 13th minute.

Naby Sarr played a sloppy pass straight to Jefferson Lerma who teed up Solanke to fire past the helpless Hamer and into the far corner.

Danny Ward then saw his tame snap-shot dealt with comfortably by Begovic before Brooks made it 3-0 in the 21st minute with a superb strike.

Solanke was this time the provider, laying the ball into the path of Brooks who, from just outside the penalty area, caressed his left-foot shot into the corner as Hamer stood rooted to the spot.

It was the perfect way for Brooks to celebrate being named Championship Player of the Month for November.

Lewis O’Brien should have done better with a header into the side netting from Aaron Rowe’s cross on a rare Huddersfield foray into the Bournemouth penalty area.

The Cherries could have been even further in front before half-time with the brilliant Brooks and captain Steve Cook both going close in the final stages of the half.

Brooks took aim from a similar position from where he scored but this time his shot was just wide while Cook’s flicked header from a Stanislas free-kick was well kept out by Hamer.

Huddersfield replaced goalkeeper Hamer with Ryan Schofield at half-time.

Substitute Schofield made a smart stop at his near post to deny former Terriers midfielder Philip Billing a goal against his old club after the Denmark midfielder had combined neatly with Solanke.

Solanke came close to completing his hat-trick in the 63rd minute with a 20-yard shot which fizzed past the post.

Stanislas further extended Bournemouth’s lead 23 minutes from time with a cool finish at the end of a spell-binding solo run.

Schofield found himself picking the ball out of his net again just three minutes later after substitute Surridge had finished off Dan Gosling’s cross for goal number five.

Soon after, Schofield made a brilliant save to prevent substitute Rodrigo Riquelme adding a sixth for the hosts.