Bournemouth 3 Swansea 0

Last updated : 11 February 2003 By Footymad Previewer

Substitute Gareth O'Connor came off the bench to net his fifth and sixth goals of the season as Bournemouth moved back into the automatic promotion places with a third win in four games.

O'Connor scored twice in the space of three second-half minutes from the penalty spot before Bournemouth brought second bottom Swansea's mini-revival to an end.

O'Connor calmly slotted away Bournemouth's second goal after Roger Freestone had bundled over midfielder Marcus Browning leaving referee Mick Fletcher with no option but to point to the penalty spot.

O'Connor netted his second successful spot kick deep into injury time to help Bournemouth leapfrog into third place.

The Cherries made the brighter start and striker James Hayter should have opened the scoring on 24 minutes when he superbly rounded the helpless Freestone before inexplicably firing into the side-netting from six yards.

Swansea's leading scorer James Thomas had the visitors best effort soon after when he rattled the Bournemouth post from 15 yards out.

But top scorer Hayter made amends for his miss by firing Bournemouth in front with his seventh goal of the season on the stroke of half time.

On-loan Chelsea defender Warren Cummings showed blistering pace to break free on the right before supplying the perfect cross for Hayter to scramble home from ten yards.

Club captain Steve Fletcher came within a whisker of making it 2-0 to Bournemouth four minutes into the second half when his rasping volley was expertly tipped over by Swansea keeper Freestone.

Midfielder Browning then had a close-range header cleared off the line by Swansea defender Terry Evans as Bournemouth began to dominate the match.

Swansea substitute Marc Richards wasted a glorious opportunity to draw the Welshmen level 13 minutes from time when he scuffed wide from close range after midfielder Michael Howard had crossed from the left.

Striker Richards was made to pay for that miss twice over as super sub O'Connor came off the bench to steal the points for Bournemouth.