Bournemouth picked up a hard-fought 1-0 win over David Moyes' doomed Sunderland, as the Black Cats failed to deliver a late charge to surivive the drop and were condemned to relegation at a gloomy afternoon at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.

Moyes' men did succeed in creating some decent chances to go ahead in the first-half, but bad finishing let them down throughout the game, as a late Joshua King strike was enough to hand them a painful defeat at the hands of the bouyant Cherries.

While, this was the first time that former Everton and Manchester United manager David Moyes has endured relegation, the season has hardly seen Sunderland prove that they're fit for another season in the Premier League.

"Sunderland gave everything to win"

Eddie Howe, who was happy about the fact that his side has crossed the 40-point mark, was vocal about sympathizing with Saturday's doomed opponents, as his side grabbed his second win in just as many games.

The Englishman told reporters in his post-match press conference: "I do have sympathy for Sunderland and the position they're in, they gave everything to win and that probably allowed for us to catch them on the break."

The win helped the Cherries climb back into the top half of the league at tenth and Howe's men are are now a point above reigning champions Leicester.

Howe deemed the achievement to be 'excellent' considering the 'size of the clubs we're (Bournemouth) competing against'. The 39-year-old also told that the club has 'more work to do' in the league, with three more games yet to be played.

Despite that, Howe was of the opinion that the win was 'big' and their target this season is 'to finish as high as possible'. He said that the club, despite being safe only logically, isn't safe 'mathematically' and will look to 'enjoy the last three games' to finish 'as high as possible'

Top half-finish on the cards for Cherries

Unlike Leicester, who have a daunting set of fixtures to deal with in their next four games, Bournemouth have three relatively easier games to play. Their next game sees the Cherries host Mark Hughes' Stoke, who also are a single point behind them in the table.

Following the clash against Stoke, Bournemouth host Burnley and then travel to the King Power Stadium to take on the Foxes.