Bournemouth gifted a late penalty to win the game against Crystal Palace

MAMADOU SAKHO’S stupidly shoved an elbow into Jefferson Lerma’s face to gift Bournemouth a dramatic late victory from the spot.

The Palace centre-half committed the offence just yards away from ref mike Dean and Junior Stanislas drilled in the penalty.

Victory lifted Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth up to seventh.

But for Palace it was a real body blow after they had got themselves back in the game thanks to Patrick van Aanholt’s brilliant 55th-minute leveller.

The Dutch left-back looked just offside on TV replays as he blasted home to chalk off David Brooks’ sublime opener — but assistant referee Mark Scholes failed to raise his flag.

Bournemouth’s victory provided the perfect response to the 4-0 rout at Burnley last time out.

Everything went wrong that day but the hosts got off to the perfect start here as Brooks curled sweetly home after Callum Wilson had laid it off.

The 21-year-old once played for England at youth level but switched allegiance to Wales last year.

His display will have had Three Lions fans rueing him slipping through the net - just as they have done ever since Wilfried Zaha began representing the Ivory Coast.

Zaha was certainly overshadowed here and an off-day was summed up in the first half when he miscontrolled a ball out wide which drew derisive cheers from the home crowd.

But the ex-Manchester United man stepped it up after the break, as did Palace - as they had to.

Warning shots were fired when James McArthur wasted some good space in the are by blazing over minutes after the interval.

But Bournemouth failed to heed them as Palace drew level on 55 - albeit with a fortuitous equaliser which should have been ruled out for offside.

Zaha slid the ball through to Van Aanholt who looked to be beyond the last Cherries man.

But the flag stayed down and the Dutchman took full advantage, blasting into the roof of the net with his weaker right foot like a seasoned top-flight striker.

It left the home fans enraged but Bournemouth rallied and should have retaken the lead earlier than they should were it not for Wayne Hennessey.

First the Welsh keeper denied Wilson at point-blank range after he had been sent through by Ryan Fraser.

Then the Palace stopper brilliantly parried sub Dan Gosling’s goal-bound header.

But there was nothing Hennessey could do about the penalty which was earned when Sakho foolishly felled Lerma with an elbow.

Stanislas coolly fired the ball down the middle and earned Bournemouth late win for the second game on the trot after his dramatic strike against Blackburn in the Carabao Cup last week.

Tempers flared late on when Lerma and Cheikhou Kouyate clashed - leading to a minor melee involving many of each side’s players.

But in the end Stanislas’ strike deservedly won the day - presumably much to lino Scholes’ relief.