Eddie Howe’s Cherries side moved one point off top after two second-half goals from Lewis Grabban and Marc Pugh against Pompey.
Emotions were clearly running high amidst the crowd and the pumped-up home spectators of almost 8,000 buoyed up the victorious Cherries.
Initially the match was evenly poised and Portsmouth posed plenty of problems for Bournemouth as the possession was equally divided in the first half.
[one_half]Thank you so much for all your kind tweets!! Buzzing we got the 3 points and are 1 point off top! Lads have been quality!! #GreatCrowdToday
— Marc Pugh (@MarcPugh7) February 9, 2013
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Caretaker manager for Portsmouth, Guy Whittingham, got all his men behind the ball including three new debutants Therry Racon, Patrick Agyemang and John Akinde.
The visitors were hoping to overcome a disappointing series of eight consecutive losses, but had to face another loss at the hands of Eddie Howe’s side and now sit second from bottom, 11 points adrift of safety.
[/one_half_last] Pompeys’ strong defence paid off during a largely uneventful first half but the Cherries took control of the game just a few minutes into the second half.Lewis Grabban, who had earlier hit the crossbar with a header, broke the gridlock on the 63rd minute when he converted his 13th goal of the season after a pass from Josh McQuoid.
In front of the season’s best crowd of 9,135, Marc Pugh made sure of victory and sealed the Cherries’ fourth win in succession when he ran on to Pitman’s pass to beat goalkeeper Simon Eastwood in the 77th minute.
Today, Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth is going to play against Crew at the Alexandra stadium, hopping to continue its winning streak.
AFC Bournemouth: Shwan Jalal, Simon Francis, Steve Cook, Matt Ritchie, Daniel Seaborne, Marc Pugh, Eunan O´Kane, Harry Arter (Hughes – 83), Josh McQuoid, Brett Pitman (MacDonald – 90), Lewis Grabban(Tubbs – 82)
Subs Not Used: Ryan Allsop, Joe Partington, Richard Hughes, Wes Fogden, Steve Fletcher
Booked : None
Portsmozth: Simon Eastwood, Dan Butler, Ricardo Rocha, Gabor Gyepes, Yassin Moutaouakil, Therry Norbert Racon (Wallace – 69), Johannes Ertl, Shaun Cooper (Walker – 82), Adam Reed, John Akinde, Patrick Agyemang (Keene – 65)
Subs Not Used: Phil Smith, Sam Sodje, Ashley Harris, Adam Webster
Booked: Butler, Reed
Attendance: 9,135
Main image credit: Harris Badar
