Bournemouth are back in the Premier League, as they confirmed their promotion as Championship runners-up with a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
They will be promoted along with Fulham, who were confirmed as champions on Monday after a 7-0 hammering of Luton Town, while Forest will have to go via the Playoffs if they are to make a long-awaited return to the top flight.
Kieffer Moore scored the only goal of the game, via a smartly worked free-kick, with just seven minutes of the 90 remaining to send the Bournemouth fans crazy.
“We locked eyes and just saw the space. Thankfully Phil Billing played me the ball and the rest is history,” Moore said after the game.
Bournemouth spent five seasons in the Premier League before being relegated in 2020. After finishing sixth and being eliminated from the playoffs in their first season down in the Championship last year, Scott Parker has led them back to the top flight with a game to spare this time around.
AFC Bournemouth midfielder Lewis Cook has claimed that promotion to the Premier League is “everything” for the Englishman.
Having played in the top flight for the Cherries across four separate seasons, Cook was delighted to return to the Premier League following the full-time whistle.
He said: “I’m just so glad to be back there with the lights, the stadiums; it’s everything. The Premier League is every boy’s dream.
“I can start watching Match of the Day again and just enjoy it!”
With promotion secured in the 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest, the 25-year-old middleman revealed his thoughts were solely on the win ahead of kick-off.
“It was such a hard game, and it’s been such a hard season,” he explained. “The lads have been fantastic, the staff and the players, they work so hard, and I’m just so happy.
“I was coming into the game envisaging this moment, and I’m just delighted for everyone.
“I was a little bit nervous before the game, and I tried to sleep during the day. I was trying to sleep with my eyes open; I couldn’t do anything!
“But we were great today and we did everything we had to do, I’m just delighted for everyone.”
Nottingham Forest went into the game at the Vitality Stadium, a place behind Bournemouth but knowing that a win would put them in front on goal difference and in charge of their own fate heading into the final round of fixtures. However, Forest will now have to settle for a place in the playoffs for the one remaining promotion place.
Bournemouth will finish the season at home to eighth-placed Millwall on Saturday when Forest travel to 18th-placed Hull City.
