FT: Bournemouth 5-0 Doncaster Rovers - Dickov devastated

Paul Dickov’s side are just three points above the drop zone after a heavy defeat to Bournemouth.

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe applauded full debutant Yann Kermorgant after the striker netted a fantastic hat-trick.

Kermorgant, a £400,000 January recruit from Charlton, scored 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 the Cherries completed their first league double of the season.

Howe was ecstatic at his recent signing’s strikes and how the Frenchman, in his fifth appearance for Bournemouth, adds 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 out footballing principles and launch balls up the field to him and play the percentages

“Although he is a tall lad, he is technically very good and can play with his feet and he is good with his chest and he’ll fit our style of play which we felt was very important.

“The really important goals from my perspective are his aerial presence from headers, which is something we’ve lacked this season, and those were two headed goals of high quality.”

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’ hung cross, before completing his first career hat-trick with another powerful header.

Arter completed the rout with two drilled efforts after the break, to give the Cherries their second win of 2014.

Doncaster manager Paul Dickov could not hide his disappointment after the heavy defeat had left his team deep in relegation trouble.

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 before I felt we had a chance of getting something out of this match but we had to change our gameplan 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.”