Bournemouth’s Junior Stanislas sends West Brom toward brink with stunner

A tendency to undo their hard work has plagued West Bromwich Albion all season long and it blighted them again here as Ben Foster was caught cold by Jordon Ibe’s swerving effort on a biting and blustery afternoon on the south coast before Junior Stanislas’s postage-stamp free-kick from 25 yards sealed victory two minutes from time. In reality, squandering leads is only a small slice of a fairly miserable story for a West Brom side who have been resigned to playing Championship football in August for a while now.

Alan Pardew’s men have dropped 24 points from winning positions –more than any other team in the Premier League – and were again left with nothing to show for a solid if unspectacular performance in which Jay Rodriguez opened the scoring. An exasperated shake of the head by Pardew as Charlie Daniels hacked off the line from Matt Phillips with seconds left to play said it all. For Bournemouth, who will now fly to Dubai for a warm-weather training camp, this might ultimately prove a victory that helped ensure a fourth successive season of top-flight football.

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