The sight of Bournemouth scoring their first free-kick in the Premier League may have left manager Eddie Howe feeling ever so slightly smug on Saturday evening.
It was January 2016 when, after selling Yann Kermorgant to Reading for £500,000, panic spread as Bournemouth realised they no longer had a recognised free-kick taker. Yet Howe had an idea. He sent Junior Stanislas on a crash course in the hope he could become a set-piece specialist, and against West Bromwich it paid off.
All those sessions at the training complex and hours of ‘practice, practice, practice’ — as Howe described it — came down to one chance to score from 25 yards at the Vitality Stadium.