Steve Cook serves up boost for Bournemouth in defeat of Newcastle

Bournemouth climbed out of the bottom three with a victory over Newcastle United thanks to a goal scored by a player who did not even think he should have been in the team because he had been playing so badly.

Steve Cook was Bournemouth’s unlikely match winner, in a game they had never looked like winning in the first half as Newcastle hit the woodwork, were denied a goal that should have stood because of an incorrect offside flag, as well as several excellent saves by the Cherries goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.

But these are the victories that tend to define the teams who are going to be successful in the battle against relegation and, after a slow start to the season, Bournemouth will start to believe again.

As for Cook, after claiming a few weeks ago that he was playing so badly that he should be dropped, this was a reminder that he belongs at this level. It was not just his winning goal, in the second minute of stoppage time, heading in Andrew Surman’s corner, it was the brilliant block that prevented Dwight Gayle’s header giving Newcastle the lead in the first half and the sheer stubborn refusal to let their, initially rampant, hosts open the scoring.

Had Rafa Benitez’s men scored first, they could have gone on to secure a comfortable home win, but the longer Bournemouth frustrated them, the more edgy they became. For the final 20 minutes, it was Eddie Howe’s side who charged forward in search of three points, relentlessly probing for a goal, pushing an increasingly-nervous Newcastle into mistakes. It was a battle of will, a test of nerve and it was Bournemouth who passed.

“In the first couple of games of the season I didn’t perform at the levels I set myself,” said Cook. “I was very disappointed with myself, but hopefully I’ve ridden that now and come out the other end and I’m a better player for it. 

“I came out of the team because of injury, but I might have been dropped anyway. It’s the first time in a while that my form has really dipped and it was tough to take. I’ve had a lot of people rally around and we get a lot of help around the club. Hopefully I’ve come through and hit better form and I’m producing better performances. 

“This result was a massive relief. I haven’t scored in a long time and I don’t think we’d won a league game that I’d started. It was huge for me. To come up here and get a clean sheet and a win is outstanding.”

For Benitez, this was the sort of defeat he has feared since the start of the season, although he was more annoyed with the performance than the result. His mood was dark and his answers to question tetchy and terse.

“I wasn’t very happy with some of the things I was watching, that’s it,” Benitez said. “Hopefully, in the future, we will not make the same mistakes again. We knew it would be a long season, we would have good results and bad results. We will stay calm and try to do the right things. When you have experience, you know things will be like this.”