The Cherries started the more brightly of the two managerless sides and the first chance came from a Foley cross when defender Hammond was forced to clear under pressure and Leon Best, who might have done better, when he tested keeper Kuipers who was able to gather the shot at the second attempt.
Warren Cummings is starting to show glimpses of the player he was before his long injury layoff and after 25 minutes he went on a typical run down the left and worked the ball through to Hayter, playing again in the hole, who could not quite squeeze it through to Best.
The Seagulls keeper was looking rather uncertain and his indecision almost led to a problem when Best robbed him of the ball but unfortunately ran out of room to punish him fully.
After 35 minutes Hayter found some space on the right flank wand was able to pull the ball back for Foley on the penalty spot who blasted into the roof of the net to put Bournemouth into a deserved lead.
The home team rallied and Young and Broadhurst both made good clearances before perhaps the most significant occurrence of the night. In the dying seconds of the half Browning and Fraser tussled just outside the corner of the Bournemouth box and, although I'd have to do an Arsène Wenger and say I didn't see the incident, it would appear that Marcus stamped on the Brighton player's back to result in the second sending off of his career (both incidentally by tonight's referee Mr Hill).
HT: 0-1
The sending off proved a morale boost as well as a numerical advantage to the home team and this started to tell at the beginning of the second period. The pressure came to fruition after 8 minutes of the half when a long ball from Fraser on the half way line found Hammond totally unmarked on the edge of the area and able to comfortably head past Gareth Stewart for the equaliser.
The writing appeared to be on the wall and on the hour the Seagulls took the lead. A corner from the right led to complete chaos in the Cherries defence and the ball fell to Revell on the six yard line who gratefully accepted the chance.
Best and Foley were replaced by Fletcher and Hollands and this enabled us to get a bit more of the ball with Fletch much more capable of holding the ball up than the Southampton loanee. Then out of the blue a speculative free kick thirty yards out found Eddie Howe rise highest and head strongly past Kuipers with the Brighton defence looking totally flat footed.
The Seagulls stepped up the pace again as they sought to restore the lead but the defence was coping reasonably easily and it was James Hayter who could have grabbed all 3 points for the Cherries when he lashed the ball goalwards in the final few minutes only to find the side netting.
A draw was probably a fair result on the run of play but on the dark walk back through the woods back to Preston Park station we could only speculate what would have happened but for Browning's stupid sending off.
Eddie Howe, very steady in defence and a vital equaliser.AFCB: Stewart, Young, Purches, Cummings, Howe, Broadhurst, Foley, Browning, Cooper, Hayter, Best
Subs: Moss, Cooke, Fletcher (for Best, 65), Hollands (for Foley, 70), Gowling (for Howe, 87)
Clive Loader, Wimbledon