ONE second of sublime skill knocked Cherries off course as Lou Macari's Huddersfield demonstrated their intent to go straight back up to Division One.

Sean O'Driscoll's team had taken 20 minutes to fully settle in the palatial McAlpine Stadium against an outfit who suffered agonisingly unexpected relegation following defeat on the last day of last season.

But with Wade Elliott coming more and more into the game on the right-hand side of midfield in the 25 minutes before the break, Cherries looked fairly comfortably at half-time.

And hopes that they could pull off a good result and take at least one point back to the south coast were high on the agenda at the end of the opening 45 minutes.

Kenny Irons, however, had different thoughts and he hammered in a goal that was arguably better than any of the 19 that Jermain Defoe netted for Cherries during his loan spell at Dean Court last season.

Irons' effort was that good and is likely to remain among the top three that nestle into one of the two nets at the McAlpine Stadium throughout the remainder of this season.

Huddersfield's midfielder met a finely weighted cross-field pass from striker Chris Hay, who had been denied access down the left flank by Cherries defender Eddie Howe.

The ball was teed up perfectly for Irons to strike first time from the edge of the box and he volleyed it magnificently into the top left-hand corner of Cherries goalkeeper Gareth Stewart's net.

It was a simply stunning effort that got an until then subdued 10,137 crowd standing on their feet in rapturous applause.

Stewart, for his part, had no chance. He dived to his right but the direction of Irons' shot was perfect and it arrowed into the top corner like an exocet.

The goal knocked Cherries out of their stride at an important time as they had looked the more likely to score in the 25 minutes before the break.

Twice during that period Elliott, quiet in the opening 20 minutes as Cherries tried to penetrate down the left rather than right, put over crosses that caused panic in Huddersfield's defence.

The first time the former Bashley player was released into space by a flowing move involving Richard Hughes and James Hayter, whose passes switched play superbly from the left to right.

Elliott sent over a high cross which eluded Huddersfield defenders Kevin Gray and Chris Lucketti but Chukki Eribenne, starting his first league game for eight months, couldn't quite stretch enough to poke it into the net.

Eribenne and Stephen Purches then tantalisingly failed to convert a second inviting Elliott centre before the former West Ham man cut inside from the left touchline and drove a 16-yard shot just wide of Huddersfield keeper Martyn Margetson's left-hand post.

Cherries' fans, tucked in behind Stewart's goal at the time, also thought Elliott's left foot strike from 25 yards had been deflected into the net by defender Chris Holland.

But as they 'celebrated' the opening goal, the travelling fans were subjected to the ironic cheers of Terriers supporters as the ball looped agonisingly over the bar rather than dropping into the net.

Huddersfield, of course, had also created a few first-half chances, the best of which saw Hay lob just over midway through the half. Irons' goal changed the direction of the game and although Cherries battled hard, they couldn't conjure up an equaliser against a well-organised outfit.

Warren Feeney, back in Yorkshire following his move to Bournemouth from Leeds, powered a 25-yarder over after Eribenne had flicked the ball on and Hayter shot straight at Margetson's legs when running clear of Huddersfield's defence with probably the away side's best chance.

In between, a second Irons thunderbolt flew just wide of the target and Hay twice went close for the Terriers as they enjoyed a 10-minute purple patch.

Cherries pushed forward late on and Jason Tindall just failed to snatch a draw with a close range effort.

But Huddersfield held out for victory on a day that belonged to that man Irons.