Andrew Lloyd Williams reports from Dean Court

Cherries caused Grimsby trouble from the start when the pace of Connell and a Garry header had Nick Colgan sweating. Hearts skipped a beat when Akpa Akpro had a great chance to open the scoring with 9 minutes on the clock after a misunderstanding between Garry and Pearce left him one-on-one with Shwan Jalal. Bournemouth's number one raced out to narrow the angle and the Grimsby striker shot wide of the mark.

Liam Feeney gave Widdowson a torrid opening twenty minutes as he twice beat the Grimsby left-back to cross the ball. Plenty of hunger was on show as Molesley, Robinson, Pitman and Connell teamed up to chase down possession and win the ball. The manager less visitors were also battling hard to secure a place in the pans of their next boss. Feeney and Molesley switched wings on the half hour mark to great effect. Feeney, now on the left, charged clear of the visiting right back and crossed for Pitman, whose header was brilliantly saved by Colgan. A minute later however, a quickly-taken Pitman free kick went through to Alan Connell who swivelled and shot into the top right hand corner of the net. Team-mates lined up to congratulate the popular striker on his first league goal of the season.

Feeney nearly doubled the lead minutes later when he was put through by Pitman down the left flank and cut inside but his shot was blocked. Bournemouth doubled their lead ten minutes before half time after Molesley worked hard to win possession in midfield. Molesley played the ball to Hollands who worked it out to Pitman on the right wing. Pitman intelligently put an early cross into the box and, under pressure from Connell, Linwood turned the ball into his own net. It was all Bournemouth as team captain Danny Hollands shot just wide of the target from the edge of the box. Molesley nearly added a third before half time when he cut inside from the right and beat two men to fire at Colgan.

At the start of the second half, Shwan Jalal did extremely well to dive down to his right hand side and paw away a shot from Forbes. From the resulting corner as Linwood headed towards goal, Garry could only help it past his own goalkeeper to get Grimsby back into the game. This lifted the visitors' spirits and they looked a more competitive side in the second half. Alan Connell appeared invigorated after the confidence boost of scoring a goal and along with strike partner Pitman was causing Colgan real problems. On the hour mark Cummings crossed for Pitman who turned his back to goal and flashed a bicycle kick across the goalmouth. Akpa Akpro nearly equalised as the bulky striker buldozed his way through and toe-poked a through ball towards goal. Fortunately Shwan Jalal's height allowed him to hold onto the ball. With Grimsby's tails up, Boshell quickly took a free kick which blazed over and left the ball boys scrambling rather than the goalkeeper.

Substitute Steve Fletcher had his old team-mate Colgan sweating as he challenged for a floating cross which neither man was able to reach. The home side won successive corners as they looked to wrap up the three points at the end of the game. The pressure paid off as Brett Pitman smashed an overhead kick into the back of the net following good work by Fletcher and Feeney on the right hand side. Pitman showed great composure and determination to net under pressure after his earlier overhead effort went off target.

As the final whistle went, players and supporters alike celebrated another three points and another week as leaders of League Two.

Today's match attendance was 5,272.

Match stats:

Goals:

AFC Bournemouth: (27 minutes) Alan Connell, (33 minutes) Linwood own goal, (88 minutes) Brett Pitman

Grimsby Town: (50 minutes) Garry own goal 

Substitutions:

AFC Bournemouth: (68 minutes) 16 Edgar for 20 Molesley, (76 minutes) 33 Fletcher for 10 Connell, (90 minutes) 17 McQuoid for 11 Feeney

Grimsby Town: (64 minutes) 13 Hegarty for 23 Shahin, (75 minutes) 24 Magennis for 7 Forbes

Bookings:

AFC Bournemouth:

Grimsby Town: (55 minutes) 14 Bore, (90 minutes) 24 Magennis

Red Cards:

AFC Bournemouth:

Grimsby Town:

Here are today's teams.

AFC Bournemouth

1 Shwan Jalal

11 Liam Feeney

8 Anton Robinson

3 Ryan Garry

10 Alan Connell

14 Danny Hollands (C )

28 Warren Cummings

20 Mark Molesley

9 Brett Pitman

5 Jason Pearce

23 Lee Bradbury

Substitutes: 33 Steve Fletcher, 16 Anthony Edgar 19 Jeff Goulding 6 Marvin Bartley 17 Josh McQuoid 30 Dan Thomas.

Grimsby Town

1 Nick Colgan (C )

3 Joe Widdowson

6 Peter Sweeney

7 Adrian Forbes

11 Danny Boshell

16 Paul Linwood

14 Peter Bore

29 Bradley Wood

26 Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro

20 Jamal Shahin

23 Olly Lancashire

Substitutes: 35 Leigh Overton 19 Michael Leary 12 Jamie Clarke 18 Chris Jones 24 Josh Magennis 22 Mark Gray 13 Nick Hegarty.