CHERRIES secured the point that confirmed their Premier League survival after twice hitting back to secure a 2-2 draw with Stoke.

There was an element of luck about the hosts' second equaliser, Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross turning the ball into his own net with nine minutes to play.

Striker Lys Mousset, starting a Premier League match for the first time, had headed into his own goal 12 minutes before half-time to put the visitors in front.

Mame Biram Diouf restored Stoke's advantage on 73 minutes – 11 minutes after Junior Stanislas had levelled for Eddie Howe's side.

Cherries dominated the ball from the outset, albeit this wasn't a course of events that would have disturbed a passive Stoke team, content to retreat and allow the hosts oodles of possession.

Indeed, Cherries had nothing tangible to show for their early efforts. Rather, a few mental battles were being won. Lewis Cook, for one, was imposing his dynamic, forward-minded style on an otherwise attritional midfield battle.

And Joshua King, despite Stoke's best endeavours to double up on the home team's prolific hitman, was letting Potters' centre-back Bruno Martins Indi know who had the upper hand in that particular physical battle.

For the visitors, Marko Arnautovic was a sporadic menace – a 10th-minute shot from the Austrian was scuffed low into Artur Boruc's gloves. But Stoke's initial lack of ambition was epitomised when lone striker Diouf, deep in his own half, clattered forward a clearance that, in his absence, drifted out of play 30 yards ahead of the nearest blue shirt.

Cherries' most promising avenue of attack was coming in the shape of reunited right-sided duo Adam Smith and Stanislas, the winger starting only his second match since January 31.

Understandably, then, it took a while for Stanislas to hit his straps. When he did, he located Smith scurrying in behind Stoke left-back Marc Muniesa but unable to pick out a team-mate in a congested penalty box.

Stanislas's next touch, on 22 minutes, was more subtle altogether, redirecting King's pass into Smith, coming in off his touchline. The full-back shifted the ball out of his feet and sent a cracking strike thudding into the far post – and back out to Mousset.

The forward, though, with an empty net at his mercy, couldn't readjust his body in time to get on top of the ball and lashed it wildly over the top of Jack Butland's goal.

On 25 minutes, the match took on a more spicy hue. Harry Arter crashed into a challenge on Joe Allen, leaving the Welshman crumpled in a heap. The Cherries midfielder protested his innocence. Replays suggested he was quite fortunate to escape with a booking.

The incident acted to stir the furious away side into something resembling an attacking force.

Geoff Cameron had tracked back diligently to intercept Stanislas's pass, intended for Lewis Cook, breaking free on the left, when Mark Hughes's team launched a lightning counter.

Xherdan Shaqiri – a fat Ryan Fraser by the locals' reckoning' – displayed some lovely footwork when Arnautovic's eventual cross reached him, before seeing his goalbound effort diverted behind by Steve Cook.

Arnautovic's subsequent corner was only partially cleared, as far as Muniesa, who returned a dipping 25-yard strike that forced the scrambling Boruc to glove the ball round his right-hand post.

The warning signs were there, though, and, after Steve Cook had closed out Diouf at the expense of another corner, Stoke struck.

Arnautovic swung in the dead ball from the left, Mousset won the header – but only succeeded in sending it sailing beyond Boruc and inside the far post.

There followed a lengthy old inquest, Stanislas, Smith and Boruc all having their say.

Cherries had only one chance to retaliate before half-time. Lewis Cook released Stanislas to deliver a cross that ran behind Mousset. Glen Johnson's tame clearance sat up perfectly for King, but the Norwegian, so accomplished of late, hurried his shot and fired it far too high to trouble Butland.

It didn't need much footballing nous to decipher Stoke's gameplan after the restart. Shaqiri and Arnautovic dropped their starting positions slightly, thus presenting Cherries with a five-strong midfield wall to knock down – that just to get at the visitors' back four.

Furthermore, Hughes's men took an age to restart play whenever that opportunity arose.

And despite Cherries plugging away, desperately trying to find the keys to this double-padlocked door, the best of it for them in the quarter-hour after the break was a Stanislas shot that thumped into Shawcross.

Insult would have been added to frustration if Stoke's immediate counter hadn't been held-up by Simon Francis's wonderfully executed, last-ditch sliding tackle on Diouf.

Shaqiri's follow up flew over, via a deflection off Charlie Daniels.

Arnautovic then had a glorious chance to deliver a hammer blow to Cherries' hopes of taking something from the contest.

Allen's turn of pace did for Lewis Cook and enabled the midfielder to lift in a cross from the right. Arnautovic leapt to meet it but just couldn't direct the ball below the bar and into an unguarded net.

That miss looked even more costly two minutes later. Lewis Cook, whose first thought is always to play the ball forward, clipped a terrific pass into the overlapping Smith.

He accelerated into space and cut in a trademark low cross that – following a smart dummy by King – invited Stanislas to sweep home his first goal since January 14 at Hull.

Soon after, Lewis Cook's presence was enough to force Allen to shoot off target from inside the area, after Shaqiri had shown Daniels a clean pair of heels and delivered from the right.

But, before long, Stoke were causing havoc down that channel, once more. It was Cameron who injected some urgency into the move, bursting forward and demanding a return pass from Shaqiri.

When he got it, the American midfielder actually shanked his deep cross. Nevertheless, Arnautovic steered the ball back into a dangerous area, wrong-footing Francis in the process.

As the defender struggled to recover his position, Diouf pounced and forced the ball past a despairing Boruc.

The damage could quickly have become worse if substitute Jonathan Walters hadn't headed over from another precise Shaqiri centre.

And Cherries quickly capitalised on their let-off.

Smith reprised his role of provider, his centre finding Max Gradel – not long on for Stanislas. Totally unmarked, Gradel's header was drifting wide, until it hit King.

The striker inadvertently sent the ball into the back of Shawcross. His soft touch landed in the back of the net.

Gradel had a pot shot that bounced into Butland's mitts as the game moved into its last knockings, while Steve Cook applied a vital headed touch to divert Shaqiri's menacing free-kick away from trouble.

And that is where Cherries are now, officially.

Cherries (4-4-2): Boruc, A Smith, Francis, S Cook, Daniels, Stanislas (Gradel, 72), Arter, L Cook, Pugh (Ibe, 79), Mousset (Fraser, 58), King.

Unused subs: B Smith, Mings, Cargill, Allsop (g/k).

Booked: Arter, Gradel.

Stoke City (4-3-3): Butland, Johnson, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Muniesa, Whelan, Cameron, Allen, Shaqiri, Diouf (Walters, 77), Arnautovic (Pieters, 90).

Unused subs: Berahino, Adam, Crouch, Sobhi, Grant (g/k).

Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire).

Attendance: 11,046.