It was a night soundtracked by the Impossible Dream.<\/p>\n
And it was no coincidence that was the song chosen at the Vitality Stadium before Bournemouth’s first European home game in the club’s 127-year history.<\/p>\n
As supporters lucky enough to bag a ticket for the historic occasion waved flags to the Andy Williams classic, a giant tifo rose from behind one of the stands, bearing the words ‘Minus 17 to European dreams. AFC Bournemouth, established 1899’.<\/p>\n
As recently as 2008, a night like this would have been unthinkable for Cherries supporters.<\/p>\n
Just 18 years ago, Bournemouth were facing the prospect of no longer existing.<\/p>\n
After entering administration, the club were relegated from League One after being handed a 10-point deduction.<\/p>\n
But that was not the end of their troubles. To be allowed to compete in the 2008-09 season, Bournemouth, then managed by Eddie Howe, had to accept a further 17-point deduction in League Two.<\/p>\n
It left them at the bottom of the Football League and seemingly destined for life as a non-league side.<\/p>\n
By the end of the season, the Cherries had not only completed one of the greatest escapes in English football history to secure a 21st-place finish and survival, but had also laid the foundations for a decade of success, which culminated in a first promotion to the Premier League in 2015.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward to the present day and Bournemouth are making history for all the right reasons in the Europa League. Thursday’s 3-0 win over Sturm Graz meant they became only the second English side to win their first two matches in a major European competition since Bolton achieved the feat in the Uefa Cup 21 years ago.<\/p>\n
“It’s a moment that will live long in their memories,” former defender Joel Ward told TNT Sports. “The club should relish this night.<\/p>\n
“The owner [Bill Foley] manifested this moment when he first came into the club. He set the standards for this club, he has invested a lot into it and he wanted to see this club in Europe.<\/p>\n
“He got his wish, and they have certainly started incredibly well so far.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a night soundtracked by the Impossible Dream. And it was no coincidence that was the song…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":883969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-883968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}