For 90 draining minutes at the Vitality Stadium, AFC Bournemouth thought they had finally cracked the code. They had led. They had turned the game on its head. They had roared into the second half with the noise of a crowd that scented a first win of the season. And then Kevin Schade, twice a scorer, twice a tormentor, dragged Brentford level and left the hosts staring at yet another draw.

This 2-2 was breathless and bruising in equal measure, a match that swung four times inside 22 first-and-second-half minutes and then refused to swing again. Justin Kluivert and Marcus Tavernier hauled Bournemouth from behind to in front. Schade answered both, the second a blow from distance that silenced a ground on the brink of celebration.

It is a result that keeps Bournemouth stuck in the mud of the lower reaches and confirms Brentford as one of the early season's quiet overachievers. For one side, another point that feels like a loss. For the other, another point in a run that refuses to end.

Schade sets the tone

Brentford struck first, and they struck it cleanly. On 34 minutes Yehor Yarmoliuk swung a cross into the danger zone and Schade rose in the centre of the box, guiding a header into the bottom right corner with the composure of a man who had rehearsed it. It was a goal built on patience and precision, and it hushed a home crowd that had spent the opening half-hour urging their side forward.

For a moment it looked like the familiar pattern of Bournemouth's fledgling season, a team long on effort and short on reward. Three draws and a defeat had left them scrapping for scraps, and to fall behind again threatened to sink the mood entirely. Brentford, meanwhile, carried the calm of a side unbeaten and comfortable in their own skin.

But the response, when it came, was immediate and emphatic. Barely four minutes after Schade's header, the whole complexion of the contest changed.

Kluivert and the turnaround

On 38 minutes Kluivert collected possession in the centre of the box and lashed a left-footed finish into the bottom right corner. There was a pause, the sinking uncertainty of a VAR review, and then the release: goal confirmed, parity restored, the Vitality alive once more. It was the kind of moment that can lift a struggling team, and Bournemouth seized it.

They came out for the second half with intent written all over them, and within seven minutes of the restart they were in front. Evanilson did the spadework, feeding Tavernier on the left side of the box, and the midfielder swept a left-footed shot low into the bottom right corner. From 1-0 down to 2-1 up, Bournemouth had rediscovered a taste for the front foot they had been missing all season.

For four glorious minutes the home crowd dared to believe. A first win was there, tantalisingly close, the sort of afternoon that could turn a nervy start into something more solid. The momentum was theirs, the noise was theirs, and the scoreboard, for the first time all afternoon, read in their favour.

The equaliser that stung

Then Schade struck again, and this time there was no cross to attack, no header to nod home. On 56 minutes he cut inside from the left and let fly from long range, a right-footed effort that arrowed into the centre of the goal. Four minutes after falling behind, Brentford were level once more, and the man who had opened the scoring had authored the equaliser too.

It was a goal that took the sting out of Bournemouth's surge and restored the balance Brentford had carried into the match. From there the game settled into a tense, unyielding stalemate, both sides probing but neither able to conjure the decisive fifth goal. The urgency of that frantic 22-minute spell gave way to caution, to bodies thrown in the way, to a scoreline that would not move.

For Bournemouth it was a cruel arithmetic. They had scored twice, led against a side above them, and still ended the afternoon without the three points their second-half performance deserved. For Brentford, Schade's double was the difference between a rare defeat and another line in an unbeaten ledger.

What it means

Bournemouth remain 15th, three points from four matches, their record now three draws and a defeat. Six goals scored, seven conceded, and a haunting sense that the margins keep falling the wrong way. This was a performance with real spirit in it, a team that fought back from behind and briefly took control, but spirit alone does not climb tables. The first win of the campaign remains elusive, and with it the reassurance that this squad craves.

Brentford, by contrast, sit fifth on six points, still unbeaten with a single win and three draws to their name. Seven scored, four conceded, and in Schade a forward who is fast becoming the fulcrum of everything good about their early season. To come from behind on the road, against a side desperate for a result, speaks to a resilience that will serve them well across a long campaign.

The story of the afternoon, though, belongs to one man. Kevin Schade scored with his head and with his feet, from close range and from distance, and each time his goal reshaped the game. Bournemouth will replay Tavernier's finish and the four minutes of belief that followed. Brentford will simply be grateful they had a player capable of taking those minutes back.

Both sides move on with lessons to absorb. Bournemouth must learn to protect a lead and turn control into points before their promising displays curdle into a grim habit of not quite winning. Brentford will fancy that if this is what an off day feels like, the season ahead holds plenty of promise. The Vitality emptied with a shrug from the home fans and a quiet nod of satisfaction from the visitors.