ANDONI Iraola was ‘very happy’ to rescue a dramatic late point against Aston Villa, after he felt Villa were the better side across the game.

The Cherries scored with effectively the last kick of the game through Brazilian striker Evanilson, who came off the bench to score his second goal in Bournemouth colours.

This earned AFC Bournemouth a fine point on the road against Champions League high-flyers Villa, who had led through a Ross Barkley goal with 14 minutes to play.

Iraola told the Daily Echo after the game: “Obviously [I’m] happy, when you score a goal in the last minute, you recover one point in a really difficult place, in a really difficult game, you have to finish very happy.

“I think we didn't play well today.

“I think they played better than us and we played more the game that they wanted to play, but I think we've competed really, really well.

“I think we've had especially at the beginning of the game, 15, 20 minutes where they were playing much better than us. I think we with the defenders, Mark [Travers] kept us in the game through that difficult period.

(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire) “And after we've gone slowly, slowly levelling the game.

“I think we finished very strong with the subs. I think the subs have given us another rhythm, another energy.

“We finished very well in the last 15, 20 minutes, I think we've been pushing a lot.”

The first half saw Villa largely on top, with the hosts having a John McGinn goal disallowed by VAR for going out of play in the leadup.

On what was a tough first half for his side, Iraola said: “I think we started a little bit in between because we were not pressing high, but we were leaving a space in behind and we were not really covering each other.

“It was a matter of the timing of the runs they were making, they were obviously like they do, trying to separate these two against two against our centre backs with Watkins and Rogers, and we were surviving, but we were not comfortable at all.

“They were, I think, playing the game they wanted to play.”

But the Cherries came back into it and looked threatening in the final exchanges at Villa Park, with the Basque boss saying he felt his side were pushing hard to score in the leadup to the goal.

(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire) “We've had also before the goal, a very good free kick through the floor trying to find this first post between Eva [Evanilson] and Antoine [Semenyo], we couldn't finish it,” Iraola said.

“We were seeing during the game that at the end everything finding the middle or second half of the goal, Emi [Martinez] was claiming everything, was winning every aerial duel.

“So, we talked to focus a little bit more probably in this first part, so we have more of a chance, and at the end Eva made a difference because the header was not easy.”