Kickoff chronicles

The Bournemouth Luton tie from match week 17 in mid December was tragically abandoned in the 65th minute at 1-1 when Luton and Welsh midfielder, Tom Lockyer, suffered a cardiac arrest. He collapsed and after he received life saving treatment, both sets of players agreed for the game to be replayed at a future date with no players in a right state of mind to continue. Thankfully, Tom received successful heart surgery and was there to watch his team take on Bournemouth. Luton kicked off the replay in a perfect manner when Tahith Chong opened the scoring inside 10 minutes. It came after Jordan Clark received the ball inside the area and crossed it to the far post for Chong to head it. After 20 minutes with not much happening, Luton doubled their advantage, this time through Chiedozie Ogbene. Chong played a ball to Alfie Doughety down the left wing. Doughty crossed it into Ogbene for him to tap it in, scoring his 4th of the season. Continuing their stellar start to the first half, Luton went into the break 0-3 up when Issa Kabore released Ross Barley into the right side of the Cherries penalty area. Barkley took a touch and thrashed the ball into the top right corner leaving Bournemouth keeper Neto, with no chance of saving his cracking strike. Luton went into the break up by three and Bournemouth offering up nothing in the first half.

 It was surprising how many home fans stayed for the second half on a cold and miserable Wednesday night on the South Coast but they were rewarded for their perseverance when Dominac Solanke reduced the deficit. After missing a penalty just a few days ago, the Englishman didn’t fluff his line with the next effort that came his way. Chris Mepham headed the ball into the box for Solanke to bring down and control. After some brilliant footwork and trickery, he found himself one on one with Luton keeper, Thomas Kaminski, where he tapped it past him to make it 1-3. 12 minutes later, in the 62nd minute, the Cherries scored a second. It wasn’t such a pretty goal this time but they all count. A corner from Lewis Cook came into the area which after a few touches, was bundled over the line by Illia Zabarnyi. A minute later they completed the comeback. A fired up Antonie Semenyo dribbled down the left wing and cut into the box. His skills were too much for Luton defender Daiki Hashioka and he blasted a shot. His effort skimmed along the turf and found its way nicely into the bottom corner. The hosts then went on to lead 20 minutes later when the man of the moment, Semenyo, made it a brace. Enes Unai found him inside the box with time which the Ghanaian exploited brilliantly, thundering his shot past Kaminski and potentially wrapping up the three points for the Cherries. The exhilarating 90 minutes finally came to an end with hearts broken for Luton, but one of the greatest games in Bournemouth’s Premier League history, and arguably one of the greatest comebacks ever in the top flight. This still leaves Luton in the relegation zone, but only 3 points away from retaining their top flight status. Bournemouth sit in 13th on 35 points, level with 12th placed Fulham.

Written by Ollie Wade