Steve Cook hands Teemu Pukki a penalty as Bournemouth woes deepen | Football

Norwich held on for a crucial victory over fellow strugglers Bournemouth that finished 10-a-side and featured the Premier League’s first pitchside VAR review. The referee, Paul Tierney, who sent off Bournemouth’s Steve Cook in the first half, consulted his monitor in the second before upgrading Ben Godfrey’s yellow card to a red. Both managers backed the referee on both dismissals.

Cook’s dismissal came when he handled Ondrej Duda’s goalbound shot after Teemu Pukki had been denied by the Bournemouth goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale. Pukki fired his side into the lead from the subsequent penalty to put Norwich in a good position to secure their first home win since September.

In the second half, Godfrey was dismissed after review for an ill-judged tackle on Callum Wilson.

The Canaries went into the match eight points adrift of safety at the foot of the table but after Saturday’s matches that gap is now six, with second-bottom Bournemouth now just three ahead.

The first chance of the match fell to Wilson, with his first attempt on target in the top flight since October, but his soft header was straight at the home keeper, Tim Krul. Norwich’s player of the month Emi Buendía also threatened, but his headed effort from a Max Aarons cross was just wide of the target.

Duda looked to create and get forward, linking up well with Pukki, but was not able to find the decisive pass in the opening period.

Norwich almost took the lead through the Slovakian midfielder, making his debut for the club, after Ramsdale came off his line to deny Pukki and the ball fell kindly. His effort was palmed on to the post by the diving Cook, who was shown a red card before Pukki fired home his first league goal since 14 December. That left Bournemouth to play out the remaining 57 minutes with 10 men and they struggled to get going in the second half.

However, they did not roll over and Norwich were forced into some last-ditch defending either side of the hour mark, just managing to keep the ball away from Nathan Aké and Wilson.

Pukki had a great opportunity to double his side’s lead and go closer to putting the game beyond Bournemouth but in a one-on-one with Ramsdale, the Finland forward tried to shoot under the goalkeeper who was able to dive on to the ball. With the home side edging closer to a decisive second goal, Buendía weaved through the defenders in the box but his final strike was straight at the goalkeeper.

Tierney went to VAR after Godfrey lunged into a tackle on Bournemouth’s Wilson and was originally shown a yellow card, the referee changing his decision to red following a lengthy review.

The visitors came close to an equaliser as Krul tipped an Aké header over the bar following a Ryan Fraser free-kick.

Daniel Farke said of the red cards: “These are the new rules and we accept it. Both red cards were the right decision. Ben is a really good lad. It was not that intention, he was just a bit overexcited and emotional to win the ball after he lost the ball. Ben is probably the most disappointed guy in the dressing room. I think we have to support the role of the referee. In recent weeks, it has seemed the referee has not been in the driving seat and someone else has been taking the decisions.”

Eddie Howe said Cook’s red card in effect “decided the game”, but added: “When we were down to 10 men is probably the best we’ve battled in recent weeks. We stayed in the game for set plays and counterattacks to try and get the chance to score and get the ball to bounce our way, we had a couple of moments there today.”