Bournemouth Boss Eddie Howe Aims to Use Crucial Brighton Victory as Springboard to Success

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe has expressed his desire to use the momentum from Friday night's crucial 2-1 Premier League win over fellow strugglers Brighton as a means to propel his side onto a steady run of form. The Cherries picked up their first win on the season in the match, with Jermaine Defoe's winning goal chalking up the side's first points of the campaign.

Speaking after the victory, via Sky Sports, Howe announced his determination to see the result as a building block towards an improvement in performances. The Cherries manager claimed:

"When you start a season, you want those first points on the board and that first win as quickly as you can. It's taken longer than we hoped but it has come now, and hopefully that can set us off.

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"If you don't get that win early on, it makes it very difficult and the pressure is on the players and myself. With the way that we play, if you're playing pressurised, it's not going to work for us. We need to be relaxed and have a really good mentality to move the ball as we do and winning certainly helps that."

The Cherries boss also took time to individually praise star performers Jordon Ibe and Jermaine Defoe, who played a crucial role in the side's comeback from a goal down. Ibe came off the bench in the 65th minute and turned the game on its head, providing two assists, one of which set-up Jermaine Defoe for his first Bournemouth goal of the season. Howe contended:

"He (Ibe) is such a talented footballer and we're hoping Jordon explodes to show the player he can be. We see it every day in training, he's such a talent and he can beat people in tight areas and he did that for the two goals.

"Jermain is an unbelievable professional in every detail from what he eats to how he recovers. He sets the example. He wants to train every day and doesn't want to be treated as a special case, he wants to muck in with the boys."