Bournemouth bounced back from Wednesday’s shock home defeat by Preston North End to cement their place at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.
Two goals each for Dominic Solanke and Jaidon Anthony made it a comfortable afternoon for a relieved Scott Parker, the Bournemouth manager, who said: “I thought it was a big performance from us today. They caused us a few problems early on and that was probably down to me. They were causing us a bit of a problem tactically that we had to fix and we did that.”
Having tasted defeat for the first time under Parker in midweek, Bournemouth were not at their fluent best at the start and were lucky not to concede a penalty when on-loan Manchester United wing back Ethan Laird appeared to have been clipped by Leif Davis.
“Ethan gets fouled in the box, the official admits there’s contact, he just didn’t think there was enough,” Russell Martin, the Swansea head coach, said. “We started the game brilliantly. It’s really disappointing we don’t score when we’re on top.”
Martin’s frustration grew as Bournemouth scored from their first chance of the game.
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He and his players were adamant that Philip Billing was offside when Anthony slipped him in down the left but no flag came and Billing crossed for Solanke to execute a simple finish.
Solanke acrobatically volleyed home the second at the near post from Davis’s looping cross and after that, Swansea generally imploded as a defensive mix-up let in Ryan Christie to set up Bournemouth’s third as he seized on Matt Grimes’s loose pass. After Ben Hamer, the Swansea goalkeeper, saved Christie’s initial shot with his legs, Anthony was on hand to nod in the rebound.
Anthony, the 21-year-old winger, grabbed his second goal from Jamal Lowe’s pass across the penalty area.
Bournemouth (4-3-3): M Travers 6 — J Stacey 7, G Cahill 7, L Kelly 7, L Davis 7 — P Billing 7 (Cook 83min), G Kilkenny 8, J Lerma 7 — R Christie 7 (J Lowe 75, 6), D Solanke 8, J Anthony 8. Booked Billing.
Swansea City (3-4-2-1): B Hamer 6 — K Naughton 7, R Bennett 5, R Manning 5 — E Laird 7, M Grimes 5, F Downes 6 (K Smith 66, 6), J Bidwell 6 (M Whittaker 66, 6) — J Paterson 6, O Ntcham 6 (L Walsh 75, 6) — J Piroe 6. Booked Downes, Bennett, Ntcham.
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Referee T Harrington.
