NATHAN Ake emerged from the wilderness to be Cherries’ match-winner as Eddie Howe’s side recorded a terrific, well-merited 1-0 victory at Stoke, their first win in the city since 1991.

The defender, starting a Premier League match for the first time since he played for Watford against Sunderland on May 15, headed home Junior Stanislas’s free-kick on 26 minutes to give his side a lead they would not surrender.

And three precious points for Cherries came with the added bonus of two unwanted records being snapped. This victory represents a first on the road in the Premier League in eight games – since the 2-1 win at Aston Villa on April 9. It is also a first clean sheet away from home since February 27, when Howe’s men drew 0-0 at Watford.

The hosts actually had an early let-off, when Jack Wilshere picked Charlie Adam’s pocket and sent Callum Wilson clear on goal. It needed a linesman’s flag, which replays revealed was incorrectly raised, to spare Adam’s blushes.

Stoke s notoriously raucous home support first had cause for excitement with the game seven minutes old. Joshua King switched off after conceding a free-kick, which Marko Arnautovic quickly rolled into the path of Erik Pieters. The left back played in Bojan, whose fizzing centre was headed away by Ake, showing no ring rust on his first Cherries’ Premier League start.

Indeed, Ake, with only 13 minutes of top-flight football under his belt this term, looked sharp as a tack. The defender bundled Wilfried Bony off the ball to tee-up his side’s next attack. Wilshere, Charlie Daniels and Harry Arter combined to find Dan Gosling, with time and space to shoot. But despite the red and white shirts in front of him all seemingly beating a retreat, the midfielder could only fire over.

Cherries were the victims of an appalling refereeing decision just past the 10 minute mark. Wilshere’s pass down the left – allied to Bruno Martins Indi’s errant attempt to set an offside trap – set Wilson away once more. The striker had cut into the box, with the goal at his mercy, when Ryan Shawcross slid in to cut his legs away from him. With the entire ground waiting for the inevitable penalty award, referee Roger East waved away Cherries’ vehement appeals for a spot kick – which would have, in all probability, led to a red card for the Stoke skipper.

The visitors had, however, established the ascendancy, at liberty to stroke the ball about against a curiously compliant Stoke team. Wilshere, oddly booed every time he claimed possession, strode onto Wilson’s delicious flick and slipped a pass across the area for King, in acres of space. The attacker’s low strike was tipped behind by Lee Grant, but the breakthrough wasn’t far away.

And when Cherries deservedly claimed their 26th minute advantage it came from the most inauspicious of beginnings. Phil Bardsley took a quick throw on the Potters’ right, giving Xherdan Shaqiri the freedom of that side of the pitch. The Swiss snatched at his cross, though, only locating Steve Cook.

From there, the away team sprang into action. Cook went through King to Wilson, who, in turn, fed the overlapping Simon Francis. Stoke left back Erik Pieters upended the Cherries man, so giving Stanislas his first opportunity of the afternoon to display his dead ball wares. And how the winger took his chance, whipping in a delivery that found Ake unmarked and planting his header emphatically past Grant.

There was no immediate response from a Stoke side unbeaten in its previous six Premier League games, Arnautovic being uncharacteristically wasteful in possession and Bony’s most notable contribution an ugly challenge on Ake that landed him in the referee’s notebook.

When the Potters did make some headway 10 minutes before the break, it was largely of Cherries’ own doing. Wilson’s poor touch set the hosts on the counter. Ake intercepted Bardsley’s cross, with Joe Allen first to pick up the pieces. Arter tugged down the former Liverpool man and a previously vocal travelling support held its breath. There followed a collective exhale from that pocket of the bet365 Stadium as Shaqiri curled the resultant free-kick wastefully high of Adam Federici’s goal.

And Federici – playing his first league game this season, owing to a back injury sustained by Artur Boruc – was redundant once more when his side was next forced to keep Stoke at bay.

Shawcross met a Shaqiri corner with a header that was similarly repelled by Ake – but only back as far as Shawcross. The Stoke defender’s second, looping effort would have found the net but for the perfectly placed Cook’s last-ditch clearance.

Their tails slightly up, Stoke came forward again. Bardsley wriggled free of Stanislas to find Arnautovic at the back post. But the Austrian, normally such a clean striker of a football, rushed his effort, directing a tame strike into Federici’s gloves.

The second half was only three minutes old when referee East handed the home team a cheap opportunity to draw level. Federici had pushed away Bony’s header from Adam’s wicked cross, when Bojan pounced on the rebound and went to ground under the merest hint of contact from Francis.

Bojan picked himself up to take the resultant spot kick. And justice was done when the Catalan’s strike clattered the crossbar and ran away to safety.

Bony was then lucky to escape a second yellow – or a straight red for that matter – when he lunged into a late, spiteful tackle that left Francis in a heap. A referee who sent off two players when he took charge of Portsmouth’s League Two match with Mansfield last week saw nothing wrong here.

When an increasingly bitty contest came back to life it was Cherries on the front foot. Wilshere’s floated cross was nodded wide by Wilson, while an alert Shawcross prevented Francis’s cut back from reaching Stanislas.

Soon after, King ended some penalty box pinball by driving into the side netting.

Benik Afobe’s 69th minute arrival in place of Wilson could have paid an instant dividend, if the striker hadn’t lost his footing in the box as he latched onto Wilshere’s clever return pass.

Wilshere and Allen squared up as the game became ever more fractious – but Wilshere was soon wielding his influence to more positive effect.

The attacker linked with Afobe, then slipped the ball back to Gosling, who popped a pass forward for the tireless Francis, eating up ground down the right. The full back’s cross found Afobe, but the striker couldn’t gather and Grant was able to snaffle possession.

Marc Pugh had just replaced King when Stoke had their clearest scoring chance of the game, so far. Arnautovic escaped Francis for the first time and slid his cross in for Shaqiri. Unmarked and with time to weigh up his options, the former Bayern Munich player struck his first time effort too high to trouble Federici.

It was then Shaqiri’s turn to supply Arnautovic, the former’s incisive pass slicing open Cherries’ rearguard and setting up the latter for a shot that sped past the right post.

Stoke were hammering at Cherries’ door now. Adam’s flat delivery was headed straight at Federici by substitute Jonathan Walters. He should have done better.

Wilshere came close to doubling the visitors’ lead as the clock ticked towards 90 minutes, when the England international’s sweetly hit shot from 20 yards smashed into Grant’s right-hand post.

The announcement that there would be six minutes of stoppage time drew a guttural raw from the home support. And that noise would have lifted tenfold if Arter hadn’t smuggled the ball away from Peter Crouch – on for Bony – right in front of his own goal line. Federici then clung onto Shaqiri’s speculative effort, after Crouch had flicked on a hopeful punt upfield.

And, finally, Cherries were over the line.

“We’re AFC Bournemouth, we come from League Two” sang Cherries’ fans. It’s not where you start that matters, it’s where you end up.

Stoke City (4-4-1-1): Grant; Bardsley (Johnson, 57), Shawcross, Martins Indi, Pieters; Shaqiri, Adam, Allen, Arnautovic; Bojan (Walters, 73); Bony (Crouch, 68).

Unused subs: Muniesa, Imbula, Ramadan, Given (g/k).

Booked: Allen, Bony, Adam.

Cherries (4-4-1-1): Federici; Francis, Cook, Ake, Daniels; King (Pugh, 81), Gosling, Arter, Stanislas; Wilshere; Wilson (Afobe, 69).

Unused subs: Smith, Fraser, Mings, Mousset, Allsop (g/k).

Booked: Arter, Gosling, Federici.

Referee: Roger East (Wiltshire).

Attendance: 27,815 (Including 1,265 away supporters).