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Adam Federici targets number one spot at Bournemouth following penalty success

Bafana Bafana striker Tokelo Ranite might be in line for his first Bournemouth start this season, against Preston North End in the Capital One Cup.

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The Australian was hailed for his performance in what was a dramatic night for the Cherries and Federici personally.

His exploits went some way to erasing the memory of allowing a tame shot from Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez to slip through his grasp in the Royals’ FA Cup semi-final defeat in April.

At the time the gloveman took to Twitter to apologise for his costly error, sparking an outpouring of support from Reading fans who adopted an Aussie #flagsforfeds campaign.

“I never had any doubts about Adam’s quality as a goalkeeper”, said Eddie Howe.

With the scores locked at 2-2 after 120 minutes of play, Federici thwarted Jordan Hugill, Alan Browne and Daniel Johnson in the shoot out, meaning the Cherries triumphed 3-2 on penalties.

“He is also a great character and has been brilliant among the lads”.

An upset was something people could sense, at least wanted, ahead of the game, but poor defending from Preston helped MacDonald (23) into heading Bournemouth into the lead at the midway point of the first half.

Marc Pugh had seemingly put Bournemouth into the hat for the fourth round draw with his strike six minutes into extra time after Shaun MacDonald and Jordan Hugill had traded goals in normal time.

“Feds’ showed what a top-class goalkeeper he is with some great saves”, he told BBC Radio Solent.

“We always pick a team we believe is good enough to win the game”.

Preston mounted a second-half fightback, however, and after mounting pressure, Hugill hauled them level five minutes from full-time.

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“It is a hard place to come and win so we were delighted to go through and delighted for our travelling supporters who made the long journey to watch us on a Tuesday”.

Bournemouth goalkeeper Adam Federici is congratulated by teammates after his shoot-out heroics