JUSTIN Kluivert came off the bench to score the winner as Cherries continued their unbeaten streak with a battling 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace.

A game which lacked quality for large spells was settled 11 minutes from time when Kluivert latched onto a pass from fellow substitute Antoine Semenyo to fire in his seventh goal of the campaign.

Cherries are now unbeaten in five games and move up to 11th in the Premier League table, above Chelsea.

Andoni Iraola shuffled his pack with five changes from the side which beat Everton on Saturday.

One was enforced with Chris Mepham dropping out due to illness.

He was replaced by Lloyd Kelly, while Ryan Christie returned from injury to take the place of Semenyo.

Elsewhere, Dango Ouattara, Alex Scott and Philip Billing were preferred to Milos Kerkez, Tyler Adams and Kluivert. It marked Billing’s first Premier League start of 2024.

Lewis Cook slotted into the back four, partnering ever-present Illia Zabarnyi in the heart of defence.

Crystal Palace named former Cherries duo Jefferson Lerma and Joel Ward in their starting XI, each lining up as part of the Eagles’ back three.

After a quiet first quarter of the contest, the game began to come to life, as the swirling wind and rain intensified.

Scott was dispossessed by Will Hughes, who in turn found Jean-Philippe Mateta. The big striker found space for a shot, but his effort was comfortable for Neto.

Cherries hit straight back, Ouattara and Billing exchanging passes, before the latter fired wide.

Cook was then bailed out by centre-back partner Zabarnyi, having lost out to Eberechi Eze in a dangerous position, before Neto grabbed hold of a Jordan Ayew shot.

Billing then twice tested goalkeeper Dean Henderson in the space of a few minutes. First, his long-range free-kick was tipped away by the former Manchester United stopper.

The Dane then connected with an Adam Smith cross to power a header goalwards, but Henderson brilliantly tipped the shot onto the crossbar and behind. The danger was not over there, Billing delivering the resulting corner to the head of Kelly, who nodded wide at the back post.

Cherries looked to have fallen behind on the stroke of half-time. From a throw-in, the ball was worked to Mateta, who held it up well before laying it off to Ayew. He crossed to the back post, where Eze’s deflected shot found the net, but after a VAR check, Mateta was ruled offside in the build-up.

Iraola turned to his bench at the break, introducing Semenyo in place of Scott, with a reshuffle seeing Cook moved further forwards.

With little action before the hour mark, Iraola then brought Kluivert and Kerkez on, for Billing and Ouattara.

And Kerkez had an instant impact, trying his luck from range. Henderson made the stop, before doing enough to also deny Dominic Solanke on the rebound.

But a substitute did finally find the breakthrough, in the 79th minute. Smith helped the ball down the line for Semenyo to chase. Despite looking second favourite, the Ghanaian outpaced and outmuscled David Ozoh, before cutting the ball back for Kluivert, the Dutchman lashing high into the net.

Semenyo almost made it 2-0 soon after, latching onto a Kerkez through ball, only for a fine stop from the foot of Henderson to deny him.

Kluivert came close to rounding off the win in stoppage time, denied by Henderson, but his one goal was enough.

Cherries: Neto; Smith (Aarons, 89), Cook, Zabarnyi, Kelly; Christie, Scott (Semenyo, h-t); Tavernier, Billing (Kluivert, 64), Ouattara (Kerkez, 64); Solanke (Unal, 89).

Unused subs: Hill, Adams, Faivre, Travers (g/k).

Booked: Tavernier, Semenyo, Kelly.

Crystal Palace: Henderson; Ward, Andersen, Lerma; Munoz, Hughes (Ozoh, 70), Wharton (Edouard, 85), Mitchell; Ayew (Schlupp, 70), Eze, Mateta.

Unused subs: Tomkins, Clyne, Ahamada, Umeh-Chibueze, Mathurin, Matthews (g/k).

Booked: Andersen, Hughes.

Referee: Graham Scott.

VAR: Robert Jones.