Truffert's late winner gives Iraola's Bournemouth a 2-1 victory at St James' Park and piles the pressure on Eddie Howe
Bournemouth are turning Andoni Iraola’s goodbye tour into the best run of their season. Adrien Truffert’s late finish gave them a 2-1 win at St James’ Park and stretched their unbeaten league run to 13 games, a statistic that felt almost impossible to mention in the same sentence as Bournemouth even six months ago.
It was a rough night for Eddie Howe, back in the same patch of the sideline where a large chunk of his managerial career began, and against the club he spent the best years of his twenties building up. Newcastle had their moments. William Osula dragged them level, the crowd roared them back into it, and for a spell in the second half it looked like this was a game they might eventually force. Instead Truffert pounced five minutes from time and the home support spent stoppage time booing.
Tavernier pounces, Osula hits back
Bournemouth’s opener had Marcus Tavernier’s name on it, but it was really Rayan’s goal. The winger was aggressive down the right from the first minute, and when he skipped past Lewis Hall and cut the ball back, Tavernier had the easy job of guiding it home. Newcastle looked momentarily unsettled and Iraola’s side might have doubled the lead inside 10 minutes had they been sharper with their second touch.
Osula’s equaliser came from a patient phase of Newcastle possession. Bruno Guimaraes came on as a substitute after a February injury, and moments later an Evanilson challenge on him inadvertently released Osula in behind. Osula took the ball in his stride and finished cleanly. St James’ Park got the lift it had been waiting for, and Newcastle played the next 15 minutes like a side who felt the win was coming.
Truffert punishes a reset
It did not arrive. Iraola made his usual small, specific changes, pushed his full-backs higher and trusted his side to play through Newcastle’s press, and in the 85th minute the winner dropped into the right patch of the pitch. Evanilson got a flick-on at the far post, the Newcastle defence was half a step too far forward, and Truffert was the man alive to the second ball. He bundled it over the line and Bournemouth had a result that was probably fair on the balance of chances.
The win lifts Bournemouth to eighth on 48 points from 33 games, still very much alive in the race for a European place, and keeps the romantic subplot of Iraola’s last weeks on the south coast alive. He has told his squad he is leaving in the summer, the players have taken that as licence to play with a bit more freedom, and the results have followed.
Howe’s Newcastle can’t find a response
For Howe, this is the kind of defeat that nags. Newcastle are 14th on 42 points from 33 games and the margin for error for the rest of the season is thin. They have not been disastrous, but they have not been a team anyone is worried about playing either, and the recent run of home results has turned what was a comfortable mid-table season into something more uncertain.
The Rayan vs Hall contest is the kind of thing Howe will rewind a dozen times before the next training session. Newcastle’s back four did not get much help from their wingers tonight, and Bournemouth’s front line made them pay for it twice. With the season running out of weekends, the Newcastle manager now needs a result from somewhere quickly, before the grumbling in the stands turns into something louder.
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