A cracking 90th minute header from Jordan Rhodes gave a further boost to our Championship survival hopes in an excellent 2-1 win at promotion-chasing Bournemouth this evening.
Rhodes rose at the far post to power home fellow sub Kadeem Harris’ super cross and so make it five wins from our last seven league games,
The victory takes us into 22nd place and above Rotherham, whose scheduled game tonight was postponed, opening up a two-point gap on Paul Warne’s side, although they have two matches in hand.
Just as important, the win moves us onto 25 points, three behind Birmingham City in the first ‘safety zone place’. We also have a game in hand on Brum and have moved back to within three points of Derby, both of us having played 26 matches.
At the Vitality Stadium, we were almost ahead in the first minute when Elias Kachunga broke clear in the box but his hesitant finish allowed Asmir Begovic to save when he should have scored.
Soon afterwards, Begovic produced a flying tipover save from Barry Bannan’s fierce 25-yard drive and then Bannan saw his shot blocked when a pass to the unmarked Adam Reach inside the penalty area looked the better option.
Not surprisingly, Bournemouth gradually came back into the game and only a last-ditch tackle from Sam Hutchinson blocked Arnaut Danjuma’s effort when he looked certain to score.
However, it was Wednesday who took the lead just before half time, Callum Paterson picking up a terrible backpass from Jack Stacey and stabbing the ball past Begovic from close-in with the keeper also slow to react and the ball rolling slowly under his body.
There was still time for Bournemouth to go close to an equaliser before the interval, David Brooks firing just over from the edge of the box, but the half time stats told the story of the first 45 minutes with Wednesday managing four shots on goal from seven efforts while the home side failed to register a shot on target.
Bournemouth made three substitutions at half time and looked far livelier in the second half, eventually levelling midway through the half when Hutchinson brought down Sam Surridge in the box after misjudging a through ball and Junior Stanislas hammered home the spot kick.
With the home side threatening a winner, Chey Dunkley escaped with a yellow card after blocking Surridge and Westwood dealt with Stanislas’ resulting direct free kick.
Then, with the clock on 90 minutes, Rhodes struck in style from Harris’ pinpoint cross to seal the victory but it was left to Westwood to preserve the three points in added time, saving well from Jefferson Lerma after Hutchinson and then Massimo Luongo made a hash of trying to clear the ball.
Westwood, Palmer (Harris 79), Lees, Hutchinson, Penney, Urhoghide (Dunkley 79), Pelupessy (Luongo 79), Bannan, Reach, Paterson (Rhodes 54), Kachunga (Windass 65). Unused subs: Wildsmith, Borner, Dele-Bashiru, Green.