Bournemouth 5 Doncaster Rovers 0: Apologetic Dickov says Doncaster were poor ‘from start to finish’

The Rovers boss could not hide his disappointment after the heavy defeat dropped his team deep in relegation trouble.

Yann Kermorgant netted a fantastic hat-trick on his full debut for the Cherries, having signed for £400,000 in January from Charlton.

He found the net twice in the opening 45 minutes before completing a perfect display with a third midway through the second half.

Harry Arter added two goals of his own in the second half as Bournemouth completed their first league double of the season.

Dickov said: “Our performance was unacceptable from start to finish. We have 13 games left and they are massive games.

“I have to apologise to our fans. They’ve come a long way and we have let them down.

“I am all the more disappointed because I felt we had a chance of getting something out of this match, but we had to change our game plan early in the match and never recovered.

“We were all over the place defensively. Bournemouth’s front two caused us all sorts of problems.

“We need to get back to the standards we have set ourselves earlier in the season because we have taken a hammering. We were over-run in midfield, defended too deep and could never pose a threat in attack. We have had two long journeys in a week and lost them both, but the truth of the matter is Bournemouth were a hell of a lot better than us.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was ecstatic at Kermorgant’s display and how the Frenchman, in his fifth appearance for Bournemouth, added a new style to the Cherries’ play.

“Yann added a different dimension like you hope he would,” Howe explained. “He’s technically very good, we didn’t want to bring in a one-dimensional player.

“What we don’t want to do is take away from our footballing principles and launch balls up the field to him and play percentages.”

Kermorgant opened the goal scoring feast in the 26th minute when he volleyed under Doncaster goalkeeper Sam Johnstone. He added a second a minute before half-time when he nodded in Simon Francis’s cross, before completing his first career hat-trick with another powerful header. Arter completed the rout with two drilled efforts after the break.

Bournemouth: Camp, Francis, Elphick, Cook, Harte, Ritchie, Arter, Surman, Fraser (Pugh 76), Grabban (Coulibaly 83), Kermorgant (Rantie 75). Unused substitutes: Allsop, Pitman, Smith, O’Kane.

Doncaster: Johnstone, Tamas, Khumalo, Meite, Husband, Keegan, Wellens, Furman (Cotterill 46), Coppinger, Brown, Bowery (Robinson 46). Unused substitutes: McCullough, Maxted, De Val Fernandez, Peterson, Stevens.

Referee: Darren Sheldrake (Surrey).

Man of the match: Yann Kermorgant.