THIS was the game football needed. In this time of great reflection and, in many quarters, intense regret, a match of this wonderment was a remedy to start the healing.

Nathan Ake, Steve Cook, Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser helped reaffirm our love for this sport just when we needed it most. A sport out on its own for adding thrust to surging emotions,yet one that has tested our affections to the limit in recent weeks.

How can the game we love have harboured such dark, unfathomable secrets? A question that will take time, patience and tolerance to answer. In the meantime, AFC Bournemouth 4-3 Liverpool was the respite we had all craved.

This was AFC Bournemouth's greatest win. It seems almost laughable to say it, given it was a mere 12 months ago these very pages were making a similar claim.

That came following the 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge. That, though, was against Mourinho's Chelsea, a Chelsea staggering, buckling and swaying against the ropes.

Seven days later, the headlines were being re-written again. This time it was Manchester United at home. Yet, again, it was a United in turmoil under Louis van Gaal.

That is not to lower those results in terms of their achievement, but this win, against Jurgen Klopp's in-form side, title ambitions bristling as they arrived in Cherries' compact arena, is unlikely to be surpassed.

The Sky TV cameras needed no tripods, so fixed they were on Liverpool's final third for almost 30 minutes of the first half. Wave after wave they came at Simon Francis, Cook, Ake and Adam Smith.

They repelled much of what was thrown at them, but Sadio Mane scored the Reds' opener before Divock Origi made it 2-0. It should have been more, but a comeback? After such dominance from Liverpool? Cherries barely got out of their own half for half-an-hour. No chance. Start the car.

Enter Ryan Fraser, the most unlikely of differences. The uncertainty of football personified in a 5ft4 Scotsman. At least from Liverpool's perspective, anyway.

Fraser has always been a game changer, someone to make something happen. He had just never had the chance to ignite on this stage.

He bamboozled James Milner with his second touch. Penalty dispatched by Callum Wilson. But a comeback? It can't happen.

The next 20 minutes backed up the naysayers when Emre Can restored Liverpool's two-goal advantage. Then Fraser picked out Wilson and watched him cross only for Benik Afobe to make contact with air. His own strike, though, was clean and too good for Loris Karius, the Liverpool goalkeeper. A comeback? Don't bet against it.

The game, an unfolding soap opera in front of wide, astonished eyes, needed little more to stimulate the senses. But there was more.

Fraser was found by Jack Wilshere on the right and looped a cross towards Cook. The supporters rose - they had been here before, only this time it was Steve Cook, not Steve Fletcher, turning and firing into the net at the North Stand end. The shot was struck from almost the same spot and the decibels rose to Grimsby levels. What a time to reflect on that game in 2009. A comeback? It's on.

So much so that there was almost an air of glorious inevitability when Cook's next shot came back off Karius and Ake bundled it home. A school field scramble for a game that made you feel like it was your first all over again.

A comeback? It was Cherries' greatest, one of the greatest, and football needed it.