BOURNEMOUTH (Reuters) -Bournemouth remain winless in the Premier League after Gary O’Neil’s Wolverhampton Wanderers beat his former club 2-1 with a late winner from Sasa Kalajdzic on the south coast on Saturday.
O’Neil, who helped Bournemouth secure their top-flight survival last season, was sacked in June and replaced by Andoni Iraola hours later. But he made a winning return to the Vitality Stadium to put more pressure on his Spanish counterpart.
Wolves moved up to 12th with their third win of the season while Bournemouth, who have dropped 11 points from winning positions this season, remain in the relegation zone in 19th with three points.
Wolves forward Pedro Neto rattled the bar early on but it was Bournemouth who took the lead through a fast-flowing move down the right, which finished with Philip Billing finding Dominic Solanke in the box for a calm flick into the net.
But Wolves came out on the front foot in the second half and needed only 71 seconds to equalise when Neto drove into the box and found Matheus Cunha who curled a first-time effort into the back of the net.
Things went from bad to worse for Bournemouth seven minutes later when Lewis Cook saw red after he hacked down Hwang Hee-chan and head-butted the South Korean striker when he squared up in anger.
With the two sides seemingly set to share the spoils, Bournemouth keeper Neto took a quick goal kick in the 88th minute only for Wolves to pounce and win the ball back from Billing. Hwang then set up substitute Kalajdzic for an easy late winner.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis and Hugh Lawson)
