Rock-bottom Swansea City's struggles continued as they were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth at the Liberty Stadium in their first fixture since the dismissal of Bob Bradley.
Bradley was fired in the wake of Swansea's 4-1 Premier League defeat at the hands of West Ham on Boxing Day, lasting less than three months in the job after replacing Francesco Guidolin in October.
The Swans turned to Alan Curtis for a third time following Bradley's exit and the caretaker manager made seven changes to the starting XI on Saturday in an attempt to get things back on track.
It was to no avail, however, as Swansea put in a lacklustre performance in the opening 45 minutes, with goals from Benik Afobe and Ryan Fraser condemning them to a two-goal deficit at half-time.
The Welsh side slightly improved after the break, but were unable to claw a way back and the game was beyond them when Josh King netted with two minutes left, meaning Swansea remain bottom heading into 2017 with a mere 12 points from 19 games.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, added three more important points to their tally and sit in mid-table safety with 24 points, a comfortable 10 points clear of the relegation zone.
Swansea threatened for the first time when Kyle Naughton reached Fernando Llorente with a superb cross from the right, but the Spanish striker's header went inches wide as goalkeeper Artur Boruc could only look on.
Bournemouth were the better side in the opening stages, though, and deservedly went a goal up in the 25th minute via Afobe. A poor clearance from Jordi Amat would have ended up in his own net had it not been for goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, but the rebound fell to Afobe and the former Wolves forward made no mistake from close range to open the scoring.
The hosts brought on Modou Barrow for Leroy Fer in an attempt to turn things around, but things went from bad to worse late in the first half, Fraser making it two for Bournemouth after a smooth team move. Junior Stanislas played a clever one-two with Jack Wilshere before squaring the ball to Fraser and the winger coolly slotted home from the goal-line to double his side's lead.
Curtis' men made an encouraging start to the second half, yet it was Bournemouth that looked more dangerous, with Wilshere impressive. The Arsenal loanee created chances for Stanislas and Afobe, but neither managed to get a shot on target, the latter in particular wasting a fine chance from just inside the area.
Afobe got another chance to add a third at the hour mark after a clever throughball from Stanislas, only for Fabianski to make a fine save.
The home side saw chances come and go from Neil Taylor, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Oliver McBurnie before King eventually put the match to bed late on with a calm finish after being sent through by Charlie Daniels.
