Frank Lampard picked up his first win as interim boss at the seventh attempt at the Vitality on Saturday, Conor Gallagher’s opener for the away side cancelled out by Matias Vina’s sublime effort in the first half before Chelsea snatched the points late on with goals from Benoit Badiashille and Joao Felix. Solanke started his career with the Blues, coming through their Cobham academy to make one first team appearance for the club, a cameo off the bench against Maribor in the Champions League. Speaking to BBC Radio Solent,
Dominic Solanke shared: “It was a good game. A top club, a lot of great players and we knew that they would change their fortunes and get a win at some point. Obviously we didn’t want it to be (against us), but I think we gave them a good game and just conceded two late goals which killed us a bit, but we could have definitely got something from the game. We’re not going to score every chance. We had some good chances today that we didn’t take, and they managed to take a couple late on. But that’s just football. There’s still a lot of positives we can take, but it’s never nice to lose in a game. So we’ll look back and try to get a win next week.”
With Cherries all but safe, there might be the suggestion that Cherries have nothing to play for with three games remaining. However, Solanke reiterated that the side were just as disappointed at losing a dead-rubber as they were earlier on in the campaign, with confidence remaining high.
Dominic Solanke continued: “I think how we’ve been playing recently and the results we’ve been picking up, we’re full of confidence. Even after the game, even though we’ve had such a great spell and pretty much safe, there’s still disappointment in there. But I think that shows the character of our team that we believe we can go out there and win against anyone at the moment. So, it was an unfortunate defeat, but we’ll dust down and go again next week.”