AS A player, Old Trafford was the venue of possibly the greatest memory in Andoni Iraola’s career.

Whatever he goes on to achieve as a manager, the same stage will now likely be cited as the place in which the world really sat up and took notice of Iraola the coach.

In the build-up to Saturday’s trip the face Manchester United, Iraola was quizzed about his victory there as a player with Athletic Club in March 2012, winning 3-2 against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side in the Europa League.

Bilbao went on to also win the second leg, moving through to the quarter-finals of the competition.

As a coach, the 41-year-old has experienced some great days already, notably defeating both Barcelona and Real Madrid whilst boss of Rayo Vallecano.

With the amount of eyes on the Premier League across the globe, going to an in-form Man Utd, admittedly a side who have had plenty of issues this season, and running out deserving 3-0 victors is the stuff of folklore.

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Lewis Cook set the tone, winning the ball back before setting up Dominic Solanke to break the deadlock inside five minutes.

United applied some pressure, trying to force Cherries back. But the defence held more than firm, keeping goalkeeper Neto relatively unworked. And on the break, the visitors looked so dangerous.

Solanke struck the post while Marcus Tavernier had an effort ruled out for offside.

The winger would then provide two assists in quick succession to kill the game in the second period – headers from Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi sealing the deal.

Dango Ouattara looked to have made it 4-0 at the death, only for his effort to be ruled out as the ball brushed his hand just before he slotted into an empty net.

The final score of 3-0 flattered Man Utd. That in itself is staggering. Cherries had never won at Old Trafford in 10 previous attempts, losing nine of them.

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Asked how winning at Old Trafford compared to his successes in Spain, Iraola told the Daily Echo: “It’s a difficult comparison. It is the best result (I’ve had) in England.

“I think it's nice to win in this kind of a stadium with this kind of performance. But you look it’s 3-0, we could even score the fourth one.”

Little under a year ago, Gary O’Neil took Cherries to Old Trafford and presided over a 3-0 defeat. After the game he was ridiculed by sections of the fanbase for saying: “I thought we were very good, 3-0 was harsh on us.

“At 0-0, the boys had nailed the out-of-possession shape, broke out a few times. We had six big chances, there was lots to be pleased with. It looked like us.”

In the build-up to the game, he said: “You’re a newly-promoted side, you have a game that is winnable against Crystal Palace, you miss that one and then you end up with tough ones coming.

“That’s the nature of it. We need to make sure that we go to Man United, we are competitive and we give ourselves every chance of getting a result. We’ll see where we land at the end of it.”

There are of course plenty of mitigating factors and differences between the two seasons, but also some similarities.

Cherries headed to Old Trafford in January sitting 15th in the table, with United in fourth.

This year, Cherries started the day 15th, with United sixth, with not too dissimilar points and goal difference tallies to what they were when the two sides faced off 11 months prior.

But Cherries fans will have travelled north feeling a lot more confident this time around. There was belief rather than hope of pulling off a result.

Last season, they headed to Old Trafford missing some key players and having lost three on the spin, without scoring, including a 2-0 defeat against Crystal Palace three days prior.

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This time around, fans were buoyant having won 2-0 at Palace earlier in the week and on a four-match unbeaten streak.

And that optimism was rewarded, with a high-pressing and defensively resolute performance from first to last minute.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Radio Solent, Adam Smith, a stalwart of almost a decade at the club, was asked where he places this result among Cherries’ recent history.

He said: “I would say it’s number one, personally.

“It’s the Theatre of Dreams and we’ve never won here. I think the lads will remember it for a long time.”

Discussing the mindset ahead of the contest, Marcus Tavernier told the Daily Echo: “Before the game the manager said, there’s two ways to go about this game.

“You can sit and hold out for 90 minutes, or you can have a go at them and press up high and try and put them under pressure. That’s what we did and we created chances through that.

“We can be happy with the way we played.”

Antoine Semenyo added: “I said in an interview this week, we’ve got a good team, we can shock them and we’ve done that.

“Off the back of the last few games, we’ve been playing really well. I felt like we had a chance. We went in brave, pressing everything and got the win.”

Cherries’ performance was epitomised by the way they committed players to press high even in second-half stoppage time, hounding United into a mistake.

Ouattara put the ball in the net, but the goal was chalked off.

“At the end we didn’t want to stay low, because then you concede crosses, concede set-pieces and we wanted to keep them as far away as we could,” explained Iraola.

“It is very difficult to come here and win the way we did.

“We have to enjoy it, because it is the first time it has happened for Bournemouth.

“We knew we had players in a very good moment and thought we had a chance.

“We needed to be a little bit brave, not to concede space, try and keep them as far (from our goal) as we could.

“That’s how we want to play and we could do it.”