Woeful Walsall slumped to their fourth home defeat in six games as struggling Bournemouth kept their slender survival hopes alive with an impressive away win as they maintained their late revival.
To their credit Bournemouth took full advantage of the chances they created and deserved their latest success in their grandstand finish to the season.
Walsall have disintegrated since their good form at the turn of the year and the discord in the side was indicated by the result.
Joe Kuffour took the honours for Bournemouth, who have taken an impressive 18 points from their last seven games.
The Cherries demonstrated that they are not going down without a fight and were in no small way assisted by a disjointed Walsall side which has suddenly lost its way.
Bournemouth made a perfect start when Danny Hollands notched his fifth goal of the season in the ninth minute with a mis-hit shot which trickled into the far corner of the net.
Despite going behind Walsall struggled to take control of the game. They lacked a driving force, while the attack struggled badly.
The Saddlers, however, got back on level terms when a long throughball from substitute, Alassane N'Dour, found the unmarked Kevin Betsy who ran through to stroke the ball past David Forde.
Walsall's joy was short-lived as Bournemouth regained the lead within a minute. The tenacious Kuffour collected a pass from veteran Darren Anderton and slipped his shot past Clayton Ince for his fifth goal in five games.
Although Walsall attempted to redeem themselves, any hopes of a revival disappeared in the 63rd minute when their young defender, Manny Smith, conceded a penalty when he brought down Kuffour.Brett Pitman took the spot-kick and saw Ince block his effort only for the ball to spin off the keeper and into the net.