Saturday 10 September 2016 18:46, UK
Eddie Howe admitted he was delighted to see Bournemouth's hard work pay off after their 1-0 win over West Brom handed them a first Premier League win of the season.
Callum Wilson's deft flick gave Bournemouth all three points in a game where Jack Wilshere came off the bench to make his Cherries debut.
Bournemouth were in the ascendancy for large parts of the match, and Howe was relieved to see their dominance rewarded - having gone eight league games without a win.
"It means everything," Howe said. "You need to win in this game and the Premier League is such a difficult division.
"I'm delighted for the players, they got their reward for a lot of hard work during pre-season and it was fully justified.
"West Brom started the second half well and we're indebted to our goalkeeper, who made two or three great saves, although our best moments also came in that half."
Bournemouth 'keeper Artur Boruc kept West Brom at bay on numerous occasions early in the second half, including a superb point-blank save from a Gareth McAuley header.
Boruc's goalkeeping heroics were matched by the efforts of Wilson up front, who looked impressive throughout and was a constant nuisance for West Brom's defence.
After 79 minutes, Wilson showed great audacity to flick the ball with his heel into the far corner following Adam Smith's low cross in what proved to be the winning goal.
"It was quite a bizarre goal but a great finish from Callum and it's great to see him back on the scoresheet," added Howe.
"It will do him the world of good. We need to win but strikers need to score, and we need to keep clean sheets also.
"He looks so good, his performance was outstanding and the goal was the icing on the cake."
Howe went on to discuss Paul Merson's visit to the south coast earlier in the week, with the Sky Sports pundit opening up to the Cherries' players about his past experiences.
"Paul [Merson] told his life story to us," said Howe. "He's had a fascinating and colourful life so hopefully It inspired the players in some way.
"Part of the reason of bringing him in was so none of our players - no disrespect to Paul - would follow the path that he did.
"It was inspirational and it certainly played a part."
