Eddie Howe hailed Yann Kermorgant for a two-goal blast that put Bournemouth's automatic promotion roadshow back on track last night with a 2-1 home win over Wolves.

The French ace struck in the 10th minute by hooking home Callum Wilson's cross.

And when Wilson was felled by Richard Stearman just after the break, Kermorgant ignored Wolves protests to calmly beat Tomsz Kuszczak from the spot.

Benik Afobe's sixth goal in 10 games gave Wolves hope but Howe said: "Yann was really, really good and he and Wilson were a real force. They are one of the best strike partnerships in the Championship.

"I am very proud of my players. A lot of questions were asked of us but we dug in and protected our goal. We showed real mental strength and dealt with difficult situations in the second half with very few scares."

Victory ended a winless run of five games and Howe added: "A lot of questions would have been asked of us at 1-0 and 2-1 up. We have taken the lead in near enough every home game and haven't held on to some of those leads.

"I thought the players showed real mental strength and dealt with that situation well. They also had to deal with not having won for five games and to do it with very few scares was a compliment to them.

"We showed another side to our game at the end - real professionalism, discipline and hard work and I was very pleased to get the win.

"It was a good performance if slightly scrappy at the end. But you would expect that because we were digging in and protecting our goal. Some of our passages of play were excellent, we broke their lines really well and created the best chances in the game."

Wolves manager Kenny Jackett was livid about the 48th-minute penalty that he claimed cost his side the game.

Jackett insisted referee James Linnington got it wrong, saying: "I felt the contact was outside the box. And we should have had a penalty late on when Tommy Elphick handled from Bakary Sako. Ultimately these two decisions have cost us."