Bournemouth star admits cheating during Newcastle win

Ross Gibson

Bournemouth’s match-winner Steve Cook has admitted he fouled Newcastle’s Dwight Gayle whilst through on goal in the latter stages of Saturday’s game.

The defender claimed he was willing to be sent off if it meant protecting the Cherries’ vital lead.

Cook scored the winner in injury time, before the incident in question occurred, which saw Gayle get in behind the Bournemouth defence, before being hauled down – although he believed the Newcastle forward was in an offside position, so justice was served.

“I thought it was offside,” Cook said of Gayle’s disallowed strike.

“It was a great hit from Matt, but I thought it was offside because Gayle started right in front of me. Difficult to say right or wrongly, as I haven’t seen it again.

“The other one at the end [just before the full-time whistle], I thought he was offside as well, but I wasn’t going to take any risks and let him go.

“He didn’t give offside and it was probably a foul. But there you go. My heart was in my mouth, not because I thought he was going to score but because I thought I could be sent off.

“I would have been more than happy to have taken one for the team to protect the three points. Neither happened fortunately for us,” he concluded.