ENIGMATIC midfielder Fawzi Saadi earned the praise of manager Ken Vaughan after helping Bournemouth Poppies emerge victorious from a tight match with Brockenhurst.

Saadi’s successful spot-kick two minutes before half-time handed the hosts the initiative at Victoria Park before Jake Rowley’s stoppage-time strike sealed a 2-0 success.

On the back of three straight Wessex League Premier Division draws, Poppies moved up to 16th place with the win, some 10 points clear of the Wessex League Premier Division’s bottom two.

And after Saadi snatched a last-ditch leveller at Fawley in midweek, Vaughan was quick to recognise his longest serving player’s influence on recent results.

Vaughan told the Daily Echo: “Fawzi knew he had been off the mark for a while but over the past few games he has really started to dig in for us at the perfect time.

“He is always carrying some sort of injury and gets a little frustrated with that but just lately he has stepped up to the plate, calmed himself down a bit and focused on his game.

“When he’s on this kind of form, he’s an influential person for us, not just for his playing ability but his confident, bubbly character as well. He has been pretty instrumental in some of our performances and it has been great to see.”

On the match, Vaughan added: “We were well pleased with the result. It was a good all-round performance and the players worked their socks off to come through.”

Poppies: Vaughan, Martinez, Jackson, Ingram (Robinson, 52), Owens, Jacobs, Rowley, Ward, Bassiriki, Pekun, Saadi (Hales, 80). Unused subs: Burgis, Pearce, Phillips.