The club's under-18 side run riot against Portsmouth at Canford Arena.

AFC Bournemouth Under-18s put in a dominating display to beat Portsmouth Under-18s 7-0 on Saturday.

The home side’s high press was a signal of their intent early on, but it was Portsmouth who had the first real chance of the game, Freddie Read volleying over from the edge of the D nine minutes in.

Bournemouth opened the scoring in the 12th minute, Jake Scrimshaw hitting a low strike into the bottom left corner of the goal following a good flick into the box from the left-hand side courtesy of Christian Saydee.

It looked as though the Cherries would make matters worse for Portsmouth two minutes later when Scrimshaw was brought down and awarded a penalty. The number nine saw his penalty kick slam the left post, before rebounding to Jake Cope whose effort struck the bar.

Some great link-up play between Scrimshaw and Cope forced a good low save from Leon Pitman midway through the first half, before Portsmouth had their first genuine sight at goal with Leon Maloney breaking through the Cherries’ defence and dragging his shot just wide.

Scrimshaw made no mistake with his next chance, holding off multiple Portsmouth defenders well to force a shot past the keeper and put Bournemouth 2-0 up in the 25th minute.

Saydee won another penalty for the Cherries 32 minutes in, and Scrimshaw was making no mistake this time. He went for the bottom left corner again and buried it with precision and power to put Bournemouth 3-0 up and looking comfortable at the end of the first half.

There could have been even more goals from Scrimshaw who, 14 minutes into the second half, came close curling a free kick onto the right post, before goalscorer turned provider with an excellent drilled through ball to Ryan Glover who took the ball on the right wing and buried it into the left of the goal for 4-0.

On the 68th minute, Scrimshaw added to his tally and put the result beyond any doubt, receiving the ball from Saydee before burying it into the bottom left corner of the goal.

On as a substitute, James Oliver got in on the act 82 minutes in, hitting the ball first time from the edge of the box low and hard into the bottom right corner for 6-0, assisted by Luke Nippard.

Desperate to hold onto their first clean sheet of the season, Bournemouth’s Zeno Ibsen Rossi put in an important block two minutes from full time to prevent Charlie Bell from getting a consolation goal for Portsmouth.

Into stoppage time, the Cherries added insult to injury with Brooklyn Genesini threading a ball through to Euan Pollock who - making his debut for the Cherries at the age of 16 - got his first goal for the club and Bournemouth’s seventh in the game with a left footed strike past the keeper’s reach.

Whilst Scrimshaw understandably takes the headlines for being the Cherries’ goalscoring hero, Tom Dinsmore was equally important for Bournemouth, controlling the midfield, winning the ball in defence and accurately spraying long-distance passes time and time again.

Manager reacts

Speaking to afcb.co.uk, manager Alan Connell was delighted with his side’s performance: “We’ve got a few players from the Portsmouth and Southampton area so they know what these games are all about. From the start, we were on it today in every aspect.

“We took our good work from training into the game and looked like scoring every time we went forward. It’s our first clean sheet of the season as well which is long overdue so I’m delighted for the guys.

“Everything we wanted to do was on show today, I was really pleased with our intensity, and I’ve got to be really happy with our overall performance.”

On individual performances

“I’m pleased for Jake Scrimshaw, I think he’s got eight goals in his last five games now. He missed a few chances last week in our 1-1 draw away to Plymouth Argyle Under-18s so I think the way he bounced back was excellent. His running power and hold-up play was very good, as was his finishing.

“One of Jake’s biggest strengths is that if he misses a chance, like he did with the penalty, obviously he’s disappointed but he’ll get back in the game because his mentality is strong. He scores goals and that’s one of the hardest things in football to do so he’ll always have a chance.

“He’s a player who I enjoy working with and one who I hope continues to improve and progress.

“He linked up well with Christian Saydee who again showed flashes today of hopefully what we think he can become. Tom Dinsmore got us playing today like he always does. He’s important to the way we play with how he passes the ball. He’s a very clever player and a real positive influence in the dressing room as well.

“We were missing some key, second-year players today so we had a young team including debutant Euan Pollock who has scored a lot of goals in our academy over the years. It was an opportunity today to give him the chance of playing for the youth team.

“He held the ball up well and took his goal really well so he’s one that we’re looking forward to seeing more of. At the end of the game we probably only had four or five second-years on the pitch so already the first-years and Under-16s are getting exposure at this level.”

On Tuesday's cup game

“It’s important that we rest and recover because we’ve got a big cup game on Tuesday at 1pm here against Oxford United Under-18s. It’s going to be a tough game. We drew with them earlier in the season at home so I expect them to make it difficult for us.

“It’s a game that we go into full of confidence and one where we can hope to replicate our good play from today but they will no doubt be difficult opposition so it’s important we do the things we stress every single day and if we do that hopefully the performance will be good and the result will follow.”

The AFC Bournemouth Under-18s side are sponsored by Strategic Solutions.