AFP, Bournemouth :
Bournemouth snatched a dramatic 2-1 win over Crystal Palace as Junior Stanislas’s last-gasp penalty sealed the points at Dean Court on Monday.
Eddie Howe’s side took an early lead through David Brooks before Patrick Van Aanholt bagged a controversial second-half equaliser for Palace.
Van Aanholt looked well offside when he fired home, but Bournemouth hit back to maintain their impressive start to the season.
With three minutes left, substitute Stanislas coolly converted a penalty awarded after Mamadou Sakho elbowed Jefferson Lerma.
Bournemouth’s fourth win of the season lifted them to seventh place in the Premier League.
“It’s a massive win for us. Palace have got some very good players. It was all hands to the pump to keep them out,” Howe said.
It was the Cherries’ first home league win against Palace since November 1988.
“The penalty we gave away at the end was very disappointing,” frustrated Palace boss Roy Hodgson said.
“I don’t know that Mama deliberately tried to catch him but it looks to me that he did.”
Palace remain in mid-table after losing for the fourth time this term.
After a 4-0 thrashing at Burnley last weekend, Bournemouth boss Howe had called for his players to go “back to basics”.
Howe’s message seemed to have got through as Bournemouth powered into the lead after five minutes.
Having made a well-timed run into the Palace area, Callum Wilson turned sharply and laid off for Brooks, who produced a superb strike that rattled off the crossbar and into the net.
It was Brooks’ first goal for Bournemouth since the young Wales winger arrived from Sheffield United in the close-season.
Palace threatened an immediate response when Luka Milivojevic’s free-kick took a deflection off the Bournemouth wall and almost crept in at the near post.
Despite dominating the first half, Bournemouth were pegged back in dubious circumstances in the 55th minute.
Wilfried Zaha slipped a pass to Van Aanholt in the Bournemouth area and, although the Palace defender was clearly offside, the flagged stayed down.
Van Aanholt took full advantage, thumping a blistering drive past Asmir Begovic into the roof of the net for his second goal of the season.
Hodgson’s team shouted for a penalty when Andros Townsend crossed to Jordan Ayew and the Palace striker went down under pressure from Nathan Ake, but referee Mike Dean waved play on.
