Eddie Howe believes he achieved the impossible by leading Bournemouth to victory over Manchester United on Saturday night - six years to the day after they had been hammered by Morecambe.
The Cherries achieved a remarkable double as they saw off United 2-1 just a week after winning at the home of Barclays Premier League champions Chelsea.
The back-to-back victories mean Howe's side are now 14th in the table, above Jose Mourinho's Blues, as they look to secure a second season in the top flight.
But, back on December 12, 2009 Howe was taking charge of Bournemouth at Christie Park as they were looking to gain promotion out of League Two.
Instead they were humbled 5-0 by Sammy McIlroy's Shrimps and Howe admits a result like that achieved against 20-time champions United was something he could not have dreamed of six seasons ago.
"Someone reminded me of that earlier," he said when asked about the contrasting fixtures coming exactly six years apart.
"I didn't know that, and all the emotions of that game came flooding back. That was a terrible game. It does show how far the club has come.
"Not in your wildest dreams could you have ever imagined when I was standing there watching that Morecambe game that we would be beating Manchester United in the Premier League. It's not possible. So it really does prove what can happen in football. It's an unbelievable game."
Despite their humbling at Morecambe, Bournemouth still went on to gain promotion as they finished second behind Notts County.
Now the ambition is survival and Howe feels consecutive wins against two of the most successful teams in the history of the Premier League can go a long way to making their current aims achievable.
"Hopefully we can use these as markers against what we want to achieve in every game," he added.
"Football is very tough. Every game in this league is such a high standard, if you drop your performances you can get punished so we have to make sure we maintain it.
"It was really important for us that we didn't lose the momentum we had built and that one result (against Chelsea) wasn't a result in isolation.
"We wanted to back it up and back-to-back wins in this league, like any league, are so important. You see how tight it is down the bottom, that's given us a huge lift at a key time."
Source: PA
