STEVE Fletcher brought to a close one of the most tumultuous chapters in Cherries history and then said: “This must never be allowed to happen again.”

Fletcher grabbed a fairytale winner as Cherries secured their Football League status with a dramatic 2-1 victory over relegation rivals Grimsby Town.

It was his 100th career league goal and his fourth since returning to the club for a second spell from non-league Crawley Town in January.

He said: “It’s a momentous achievement and I’m just proud to be a part of it. But this club should never have been in the position where it was fighting to stay out of the Conference in its last home game.

“Hopefully, we will never be in this situation again, it would be catastrophic to think we could. I just hope everything will get resolved now.

“Don’t tell me the majority of those 9,000 spectators can’t come here week in, week out to show their support?

“What’s gone on here over the past few months puts a lot of pressure on old shoulders, never mind young ones. We’ve given it our best and it’s paid off.

“Although it’s been like a merry-go-round, the boys have just concentrated on the job in hand and that’s been down to Eddie and Jason. They have tried to take our minds off things, even though you can’t help but read and hear things.

“We don’t know what’s going on from day to day. We hear stories about this and that and about the club possibily going out of business and it’s not easy trying to do your job under those circumstances.

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“This is 100 times better than when we escaped relegation in 1995. We didn’t have a 17-point deduction to cope with and we weren’t staring at the non-league trapdoor. We weren’t fighting everything that was going on off the pitch either and we weren’t wondering if the club was still going to be here tomorrow.

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the boys who were here at the start of the season. It must have been horrible.

“I came to three games earlier in the season and the negativity around the place was horrible. Even though I wasn’t playing, it didn’t feel like the Bournemouth I knew and loved. I think everybody seemed resigned to going down.”

Fletcher’s return coincided with a dramatic upturn in fortunes that saw Cherries hit the safety net with a game to spare. When he came back in January, they were 10 points adrift.

He said: “To think, I was running up and down the touchline at Woking on New Year’s Day and didn’t get on in front of 500 supporters. What has happened since then has been a dream.

“The Crawley manager will be one of first people I text to thank because if it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have experienced a day like this. It was awesome.

“I’ve never been at my happiest unless I’m at Bournemouth. You don’t spend 15 years of your life attached to one club and not have enormous affection for it.

“My first game back was Wycombe and that was a catalyst. We won 3-1 and, all of a sudden, people started to believe we could stay up.

“There were other pivotal moments – the second half at Exeter and Mark Molesley’s goal at Dagenham – but it all started with the belief that went through the squad and supporters after Wycombe.”