CHERRIES under-21s recovered from a two-goal deficit and were twice denied a winner by the woodwork in a 2-2 draw with their Fulham counterparts this afternoon.

Josh Walker’s double either side of the interval put the Cottagers in command but Harry Cornick halved the deficit on the hour.

And after the introduction of Mikael Ndjoli, a summer recruit from Millwall, Cherries dominated late on with the striker scoring the penalty he earned on 68 minutes.

Ben Whitfield thumped the inside of the post and the crossbar in the latter stages but Stephen Purches’s men had to make do with a draw.

The home side’s first attack of note saw intricate build-up between Jordan Green, Ollie Harfield, Sam Matthews and Brandon Goodship end with Matthews firing over the crossbar from close quarters.

For Fulham, Elijah Adebayo pounced on a slip at the back but Cherries keeper Callum Stanton was alert and charged down the danger.

The away side's breakthrough came after 14 minutes with some incisive short passing emanating from the right teeing up Josh Walker to jink outside and fire low across Stanton from an acute angle.

Cornick’s volley into the ground bounced agonisingly wide after scramble from a corner before a brief drinks break in the stifling heat.

Green then had a close-range shot charged down in front of goal after some enterprising play down the right.

A superb piece of control from Jake McCarthy just past the halfway line took two Fulham midfielders out of the game with Goodship played in on the left of the box only to drag wide a cross-shot.

There was a brief moment of danger as Walker beat Stanton to an inswinging corner but the rest of the half played out without incident.

After the interval, Goodship’s swirling shot was parried and then cleared at the last second with Cornick poised to pounce.

Cherries kept pressing and a precise clipped ball from deep by Jordan Lee saw Goodship split Fulham’s centre-halves but his finish from 20 yards was wayward.

Matthews curled narrowly wide from a 20-yard free-kick but a suicidal backpass undid Cherries' hard work.

McCarthy attempted to roll back to second-half substitute Pat O’Flaherty but visiting captain Josh Smile nipped in and was brought down by the custodian.

Walker slotted home the penalty with 56 minutes on the clock.

Cherriesquickly manufactured a route back into the game on the hour when Goodship’s drilled free-kick was parried to the feet of Cornick who rammed home under pressure.

Despite a series of changes, Cherries continued to dominate the ball and a slick passing move ended with substitute Ndjoli firing narrowly wide of the far post.

And midway through the second half, Ndjoli powered past Aron Davies with ease and was brought down in the box. He dusted himself down to calmly caress home the penalty.

As minds and legs tired, things opened up at both ends with Smile lashing over following some sloppy Cherries defending.

Whitfield burst through at the other end woth Ndjoli's run in the centre opening up the space for a shot that pelted off the inside of the post.

The Fulham defence had another hairy moment thanks to pressure from Ndjoli and Whitfield eventually crafted some space but his deflected effort came back off the bar.

Development boss Purches told the Daily Echo: "There is a certain way the first team plays and we try to replicate that as best we can so the lads learn the Bournemouth way.

"The pleasing thing was the lads got stronger through the game. It shows we are on the right path with our fitness levels in pre-season.

"The lads didn't panic when they went two goals down. They didn't think 'this isn't going to be our day', they used a good, competitive game to our advantage.

On the hot conditions, he added: "I was sweating just watching on the sides!

"There could have been excuses that it was too hot but a couple of them played for 90 minutes and that will help them with a good base for the rest of pre-season and beyond."