AFC Bournemouth: Cherries undone by bogeyman Dann... before Benteke applies the kill

Dann has now scored three goals against Cherries in four games. But Howe will be more concerned by his team's patchy performance, which, bar the occasional flicker, was missing the verve and invention that are its hallmarks.

Palace, perhaps rather predictably given Sam Allardyce's recent admission that he would be drilling his players to within an inch of their lives on the training ground, set out on a mission to stifle Cherries.

Despite their flat back-five, and the further four players strung out behind lone targetman Benteke, however, Allardyce's side boasts oodles of pace and power on the counter – and they know it.

One slick early move down the left, the ball being shunted between Partick van Aanholt and James McArthur, culminated with Wilfried Zaha manoeuvring the ball expertly away from Andrew Surman to send a shot skipping past Artur Boruc's right-hand post.

James Tomkins was then somewhat startled to find Yohan Cabaye's right wing free-kick rapidly descending on him, the centre-half only able to guide the ball high of goal.

Between times, Benik Afobe, hurtling into space down the right flank, felt the full force of Dann, whose cynical block on the Cherries forward went unnoticed by referee Jon Moss.

Dann's crude intervention was actually rather in keeping with a tetchy, stilted opening to the contest, with any creative effort tending to meet a grizzly conclusion.

Ryan Fraser's dash down the left was illegally curtailed by Zaha, before Simon Francis, on his return from a three-match ban, was late through the back of McArthur, the Palace midfielder spinning into the air and landing with a mighty thud.

Cherries' first convincing dig at goal, with the game 22 minutes old, arrived thanks to a mix of the visitors' doziness and Joshua King's strength and ambition.

Van Aanholt and Cabaye looked to have put the lid on a Cherries' attack down the right, when the former swung a lazy clearance towards King, 25 yards from goal.

The striker jinked free from McArthur to smash an effort that, for all the world, appeared destined for Wayne Hennessey's top right corner.

In fact, the ball flashed by the post, albeit Moss didn't spy the deflection it took off Damien Delaney on its travels.

Junior Stanislas was next to try his luck for Cherries, the winger taking it on himself to inject some urgency into Cherries' tentative football.

The former West Ham man's one-two with King left Van Aanholt rooted and Stanislas bearing down on goal from the right. His subsequent shot nicked off Dann on the way past Hennessey's left upright.

His tail up, Stanislas was soon having another pop, this time directing a low strike from distance into Palace 'keeper Hennessey's midriff.

Hennessey's Cherries' counterpart was then forced into his first stop of the night.

Steve Cook's loose clearance from Van Aanholt's nothing cross landed with Zaha.

One step-over later and the winger was past Brad Smith and drilling an effort that Boruc beat away to his right.

The curiously laissez-faire Moss allowed Joel Ward to escape any serious punishment for wiping out Fraser off the ball, before Afobe glanced Fraser's 42nd minute corner beyond the right post.

Palace exploited a similar situation to greater effect straight after the restart.

Boruc punched the delivery away, but only as far as Van Aanholt.

The Eagles' debutant kept his cool to roll a pass left for Puncheon, whose cross was flicked to the far post by Delaney.

There, Dann finished with the conviction of a man who has done this before.

Palace went for the kill.

Benteke pressured Francis into playing a poor ball out of defence, with McArthur picking up the scraps to feed Zaha, who thrashed a hurried shot over Boruc's goal.

Zaha then turned provider, surging forward and slipping a pass inside that the onrushing Van Aanholt, using his weaker right foot,skewed hopelessly off target.

Ward was finally carded for obstructing Brad Smith, before the same Palace player erred again, tripping Fraser to gift Cherries a free-kick on the byline.

Fraser's resultant set-piece found King unmarked but heading onto the roof of the net.

McArthur, fresh from receiving an earful from Allardyce for not latching onto a Benteke cross, then curled narrowly off target after Brad Smith made a hash of dealing with a straightforward ball into the box to present possession to the Scotland international 20 yards from goal.

Then, in an echo of Tomkins' earlier predicament, Francis saw a looping left-wing Fraser free-kick late and could only tamely steer the ball into Hennessey's grasp.

Howe had chucked on all of his three substitutes – and switched to a three-man defence, with Andrew Surman at its heart – when the last of the replacements Harry Arter sent a tracer bullet of an effort fractionally too high to trouble Hennessey.

Either side of that moment another sub, Jordon Ibe, saw adventurous runs end with his dangerous deliveries scrambled away by an increasingly stretched Palace rearguard.

Steve Cook then took aim from distance in an attempt to bash through the yellow wall the visitors had come to resemble. The defender's strike, however, whistled past Hennessey's left upright.

Jack Wilshere's last-ditch free-kick had been kept out by a combination of Hennessey and post, when Francis presented possession to Andros Townsend from the keeper's punt downfield.

Townsend skipped by the culpable Cherries defender and stuck his cross on Benteke's forehead.

The rest, including Allardyce and his staff doing a jig on the pitch, was inevitable.

Cherries (4-4-1-1): Boruc; A Smith, Francis, Cook, B Smith (Arter, 68); Stanislas (Ibe, 61), Surman, Wilshere, Fraser; King; Afobe (Wilson, 61).

Unused subs: Gosling, Pugh, Mings, Allsop (g/k).

Crystal Palace (5-4-1): Hennessey; Ward, Tomkins, Dann, Delaney, Van Aanholt; Zaha, Cabaye (Ledley, 76), Puncheon (Flamini, 90+3), McArthur (Townsend, 75); Benteke.

Unused subs: Remy, Campbell, Fryers, Speroni (g/k).

Booked: Ward, Townsend, Delaney, Benteke.

Referee: Jonathan Moss (West Yorkshire).