GOAL hero Dan Gosling admitted Cherries had been fortunate to escape with a draw against his former club.

Gosling’s late leveller added to Adam Smith’s 80th-minute strike – the goals coming after Jonjo Shelvey had squandered a glorious chance to make it 3-0.

Shelvey, teed up by Christian Atsu’s cross, failed to hit the target from seven yards as he was closed down by Nathan Ake.

Gosling told the Daily Echo: “They probably should have put the game to bed so huge credit to Steve Cook and Nathan Ake for not giving up.

“At 2-0 down, it would have been easy for them to let him (Shelvey) run off them. If he had taken that chance, it would have been game, set and match. But they kept us in the game and our forwards did the rest.”

Gosling, who endured an injury-plagued four-year spell at Newcastle, added: “It was a nice feeling to score, not so much on a personal note and I didn’t really think about that when I was celebrating.

“It was more for the result for us. It’s very important not to lose to teams around you and that point gives us another game to go again and just to keep building momentum.”

Asked why he felt Cherries had failed to perform in the first 70 minutes as they had in the final 20, Gosling replied: “Sometimes, it just doesn’t work like that. It’s strange and you can’t really put your finger on why. We tried but just weren’t good enough on the ball.

“They made it difficult for us with the block but we just weren’t good enough and nothing seemed to click.

“We showed a really gritty performance in the last 20 minutes and that’s what we’re usually about.

“We had wanted to start the game that way but it just didn’t happen for us so, in the end, we were probably fortunate to get a draw.

“We had had a couple of weeks of really good training and tried putting that to bed straight away.

“Being at home, we wanted to be on the front foot and that was what we had been working on all week but we were just off the pace a little.

“We had been pushing for a long time in the second half but just couldn’t really pressurise their goalkeeper too much. Adam’s goal gave us a huge lift.

“Everyone knew we weren’t playing well, the crowd weren’t too happy so that was another factor.

“We had to put all that to the side and come out in the second half and be more positive and that’s what we did, especially in the last 20 to 25 minutes. That’s what we should have done for the majority of the game.

“This league this year is really strange. A lot of teams are beating the top teams. Some teams could have been down and out.

“We turned over Chelsea and Arsenal and then Swansea did the same to Liverpool and Arsenal. There are huge prizes for staying up so everyone is giving it their best and it is probably going to go down to the wire.”