The Dream Team 'Bournemouth'

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Cherries dream delights Mostyn ..


Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn was still coming to terms with his club's heroics after celebrating their promotion to the Barclays Premier League into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Bournemouth chairman Jeff Mostyn was still coming to terms with his club's heroics after celebrating their promotion to the Barclays Premier League into the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The Cherries' 3-0 Sky Bet Championship win over Bolton on Monday evening left them three points and 19 goals clear of third-placed Middlesbrough with one game to play - all but securing their place among England's elite for the first time.

Mostyn, who wrote a cheque for £100,000 to save the club from liquidation in 2008, tweeted: "OMG just got home 0250 What has just happened so proud of everyone @afcbournemouth on promotion to the @premierleague #DreamsDoComeTrue"

Goals from Marc Pugh, Matt Ritchie and Callum Wilson saw off the 10-man Trotters, leaving Mostyn feeling his side had "achieved the impossible".

Eddie Howe's men will no doubt head into next season as favourites for the drop, but Mostyn insisted the Cherries would "enhance" the division and "have as much chance as any of staying up".

"I think we'll survive," he told BBC Radio Solent. "We are going up with Watford and we've got four points from them this year, we beat QPR last year and we should have got more points from Burnley.

"The way we play football we'll enhance the Premier League and I think of any team that has been promoted in recent years, we have as much chance as any of staying up."

Looking back at the club's remarkable rise, he added: "Six years ago we were on the edge of abyss.

"For me this is achieving the impossible. For all football fans, this is the perfect story and hopefully it gives hope for every club that you can come back from oblivion and get to the Premier League.

"I am so proud of everybody and my total respect to the owner, the chief executive and all the staff. When I first arrived, we could not afford a first-class stamp."

Former England captains Rio Ferdinand and Gary Lineker were among those who took to Twitter to congratulate the Cherries.

QPR defender Ferdinand, who had a short spell with the south-coast club as a teenager in the 1996/97 campaign, posted: "Congrats to Bournemouth on promotion to the PL..fairytale stuff-Bet the players aren't washing their kit like they were when I loaned there!"

In light of recent criticism of champions elect "boring, boring Chelsea", Match of the Day host Lineker wrote: "Tell you who don't play boring football; Bournemouth. They'll be an excellent addition to the PL. Look forward to welcoming them on MOTD."

He added: "The achievements of Eddie Howe at Bournemouth make me wonder whether we've possibly found the English 'special one'."

(Below) . Jeff Mostyn: Ready for Premier League adventure . . .

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Howe braced for challenge ahead ... May 4 2015

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe will begin plans to make the club competitive in the Barclays Premier League next season when he returns to work on Tuesday.


The south-coast club clinched the Sky Bet Championship title with a 3-0 final-day win at Charlton, a result which saw them finish one point clear of Watford.

It is a first-ever promotion to the top flight for the Cherries, and their 37-year-old manager is under no illusions as to how hard it will be to keep them there.

"We need to evolve. We need to get better, that would have been regardless of what division we were in," Howe told Sky Sports during Monday's triumphant open-top bus parade along the town's seafront.

"I think the challenge for us is to try and be competitive in a league where it's incredibly difficult as we've seen this year for promoted sides.

"Naturally, they will be at the bottom end of the league so we've got a big challenge ahead.

"We're trying not to think about that, I'm trying not to think about that until (Tuesday) when we restart work."

Bournemouth's rise is a classic football fairytale. The club narrowly avoided dropping out of the Football League six years ago and the season before that were perilously close to liquidation.

Howe, in his second spell in charge at the club following a two-season stint as manager of Burnley, said the manner in which the Cherries had taken the Championship by storm had been the most satisfying aspect of their success.

"The amazing thing from our perspective this year is not just the points we've got and winning the league, it's how we've done it as well," he said.

"I believe we play the hardest way, a very attractive style and the players have shown great bravery at times to achieve the things we have.

"To win the league was something we didn't expect on the last day. We just wanted to do our business and win the game that we needed to."


Howe guided Bournemouth to promotion to the Championship two seasons ago when Doncaster edged them to the title on the final day.

This time around it was Howe's side who snatched the crown from Watford, who were denied top spot by Sheffield Wednesday's late equaliser at Vicarage Road.

"For events to unfold as they did made it a very special day for us," Howe said.

"We had heartbreak in League One when we lost out on the last day when Doncaster pipped us to the title and that made it all the more sweeter to take the title this time.

"Given the team and the moment there's been an incredible reaction from everybody and unprecedented scenes for this football club.

"It's been an incredible achievement by everybody connected with the club. As always, the players deserve all the credit - they're the ones who go out on the pitch and deliver, and they have delivered."

Howe, whose playing days were cut short by a knee injury in 2007, added: "My playing career grounded me because it was a struggle and I never achieved anything of note really, so when you get moments like this you do have to try and savour them and take it all in.

"You never know when the next one is going to come along so we're very grateful."