AFC Bournemouth were able to hang on to a valuable three points in a tough trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers after the Cherries survived having Milos Kerkez sent off with 10 minutes left in the game.

The match saw both teams have plenty of chances, but Antoine Semenyo's first-half strike was the difference between them after 100 minutes of football.

The win sees Bournemouth go to 10th in the Premier League table after starting the game week sitting in 13th, leapfrogging Brighton, Fulham and Wolves themselves.

The Cherries are now also just one point from their best Premier League season of 46 points and look likely to break this record with four games remaining in their season.

Wolves' defeat means they are now six games without a win in the Premier League, and manager Gary O'Neill will want to turn their fortunes around in their next game at home to relegation strugglers Luton Town to avoid a below-par end to the season. 

  • Story of the Match

The hosts came into this game with a squad that has been riddled with injuries as of late, missing key players such as Craig Dawson and Pedro Neto, with full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri returning to the starting XI for the first time since his injury last month.

Bournemouth were still without key men Marcus Tavernier, Luis Sinisterra and Tyler Adams who have missed the past weeks of action through injury. 

Both sides started the game looking bright on the attack, with Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers making a vital save to deny Pablo Sarabia's long-range effort.

Travers was called upon for this game for only the third time in the league this season, with Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola dropping his first-choice keeper Neto.

Bournemouth carried on chipping away at the Wolves goal with early chances from Milos Kerkez and Justin Kluivert denied by Wolves keeper Jose Sa.

Wolves were aggressive in the first half, with full-backs Nelson Semedo and Ait-Nouri being shown yellow cards after two cynical fouls.

  • Semenyo opens the scoring

The Cherries broke the deadlock in the 37th minute with a deflected Kerkez cutback landing at the feet of attacker Antoine Semenyo, who slotted the ball into the net to score his eighth goal of the season. 

Wolves looked to respond in the second half and thought they had equalised through a Hwang Hee-chan header.

However, after a long check, VAR deemed that Matheus Cunha had fouled Justin Kluivert in the build-up with a flailing arm, and the goal was chalked off. 

Despite the scare, Bournemouth looked to be confident in taking all three points home.

But the game was changed when left-back Kerkez recklessly challenged Matt Doherty and was shown a straight red card.

After going down to ten men, Bournemouth naturally started to sit off trying to see out the game and absorbed even more Wolves pressure, needing to be switched on defensively to survive.

In the dying embers of the match, Wolves had the ball in the back of the net again through Max Kilman.

However, the linesman deemed Kilman offside, sending Bournemouth home with all three points.

  • Player of the Match

Mark Travers

The Bournemouth shot-stopper impressed when called upon for the Cherries with a performance that could give him another start when they face Brighton at the Vitality on Sunday and a potential longer run in the team too.

Travers was vital to the Cherries keeping a clean sheet, as he commanded his box and made important saves in both halves, facing 15 shots on goal with four on target. 

The 24-year-old Republic of Ireland international was initially loaned out this season to Championship side Stoke City, but was called back by his parent club in October 2023 and has struggled for game time since.