Jason Tindall could sleep a happy man after his Bournemouth side moved top of the Championship table on Friday night with a commanding 4-0 win at Barnsley.

Goals from Phil Billing, Dominic Solanke, Diego Rico and Sam Surridge secured a result and a performance that the manager could be very pleased with.

On the performance 

Although the final scoreline was perhaps slightly harsh on their error-prone but committed opponents, Bournemouth’s clinical nature made it a deserved result from their perspective and Tindall had no grounds for complaint.

“We came here to win the game,” he said. “First of all we needed to deliver a good performance to do that, and I felt we did.

“Everyone to a man was excellent tonight, in difficult conditions against an excellent Championship side. We’ve come away comfortable winners in the end tonight.”

On the response 

He was particularly pleased to see a positive response from his side after they suffered only a second defeat of the campaign three days earlier against Preston North End.

“It was a really good team performance for us tonight,” said Tindall. “I felt we needed to respond after a disappointing result against Preston and I felt we certainly did that.

“The beauty of Championship is that you don’t have time to think about the defeat to Preston. You have to dust yourself down and go and deliver another good performance. We did it before, we lost to Sheffield Wednesday and bounced back with three consecutive wins.

“We knew if we won tonight we’d go top of the league, that was the challenge and that’s what we managed to do.”

On an away shutout 

As well as scoring four goals to move level with Blackburn Rovers as the division’s highest scorers, Bournemouth also earned a first away clean sheet of the season, at the eighth time of asking.

Tindall acknowledged: “We know it’s something we need to do more of. We spoke about it and it was about going out there and executing it, at a really tough place. We managed to do it so I was really pleased with the clean sheet.

“You want to score a lot of goals, I certainly do and the team does, we want to attack and score goals. But we need to tighten up at the back defensively at times and I thought we did a really good all-round team performance tonight with the clean sheet and our attacking play.”

On Phil Billing 

Billing was one of three players to be handed a recall to the starting line-up, and the midfielder impressed with a bright performance as well as the opening goal.

“I’m really pleased with Phil’s all-round performance tonight,” said Tindall. “I thought he did really well when he came off the bench against Preston. I felt he warranted a start tonight and he repaid that with a really good performance and a great strike to get us off to a good start.

“Phil, when he performs the way he did, is a really good player as we know. We’ve got some really good players and there’s tough competition, and it’s great for me as a manager to have players of Phil’s quality available, and I have to make the call that I think is right for each and every game.

“Ultimately players have to earn their place in the team, Phil earned his place tonight and repaid it with a good performance and a goal.”

On Diego Rico 

Another player to get on the scoresheet was wing-back Rico, and it was a particularly special moment when he found the net with a free kick early in the second half, as it was his first goal for the club after two and a half years.

“I’m really pleased for Diego, although I wasn’t expecting him to shoot if I’m totally honest,” said the manager. “From where I was standing I thought it was coming into the box, but he’s obviously seen an opening there and executed it brilliantly.

“I’m really delighted for him because he’s been great for me especially. He’s a great lad, great character, and I’m pleased he’s got off the mark for Bournemouth.”

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