Rondón opened the scoring at the Vitality Stadium with a wonderful free kick late in the first half, though it was left to Matt Ritchie to salvage a last-gasp point for United after a brace from Joshua King – the first a penalty – turned the game on its head.
The Magpies’ Venezuelan frontman – who has also chipped in with five assists this season – has now struck four times in his last eight appearances for Newcastle, and he told nufc.co.uk that he is eager to keep his fine run of form going as Rafa Benítez’s side look to make sure of their top-flight status.
“I’m really happy. It’s the reason the gaffer brought me here – to try to score goals and help the team to stay up,” he said. “And that’s it. I just try to do my job and keep going. I hope I can keep scoring goals for the team, help the team and after that we will see.
“Every striker, you want to score 15 goals, 20 goals – everyone knows that. At the moment I have to go step by step, try to keep scoring and not lose my focus.”
Having clawed their way back from a 2-0 deficit to see off Everton last Saturday, United again demonstrated their bouncebackability on a blustery afternoon on the South Coast.
Rondón felt that a point was the least the Magpies deserved after a largely promising showing and, ahead of a 16-day break in their schedule, insisted that they won’t be taking their foot off the gas despite taking another step towards Premier League safety.
“It was a difficult game. It always is when you play against a team like Bournemouth, who are doing really well,” he said. “They are on their own pitch, with their supporters, but I think we did really well.
“We started really well, we scored first, and after that we tried to keep going and win the game. They scored within two minutes (of the second half starting) – it is difficult to say if it was a penalty – but the most important thing is we never give up. At 2-1, they tried to keep their lead but we kept trying to score and we did. We deserved the goal. We were working really hard.
“The job is not done. We have to keep going, to carry on. We’ve got a few games at home – we have to try and win those games – and we have to continue with the same attitude, spirit and try to win more points.”
