Can Bournemouth sustain Championship challenge?

Eddie Howe has done a remarkable job at Bournemouth

Bournemouth have been the surprise package of the Championship, but can they sustain this challenge until the end of the season?

Eddie Howe's men are flying in the Championship, but lost their sole lead at the top of the table after their tremendous unbeaten run in the league came to an end last weekend.

After going a fantastic 14 games unbeaten, Bournemouth succumbed to Norwich City in Alex Neill's first game in charge of the Canaries. That result means that only Liverpool - in the League Cup - and Norwich have beaten the Cherries since the start of October, with the first chink in Bournemouth's armour being highlighted by 10-man Norwich at the Goldsands Stadium.

Howe is doing a tremendous job on the South Coast and is understandably regarded as a great English managerial prospect for the future. He became the youngest manager in the Football League at the time when he took over the Cherries in January 2009 at the age of 31, after injury cut short his playing career.

He cut his managerial wings under the spectre of financial problems and a transfer embargo, yet brought success to the club and has taken them from League Two to the Championship. At one point under his tenure they were 92nd out of 92 clubs in the Football League and it is a fairytale story that they could potentially be in the Premier League next season.

Of course, Howe did leave Bournemouth to manage Championship side Burnley, but returned to the Goldsands around 18 months later to defy the old adage of 'never go back' and picked up where he left off, getting them promoted to the second tier of English football.

This season Howe has won the Manager of the Month awards for both October and December, the latter month during which they recorded five wins, scored 17 goals and secured maximum points.

Bournemouth are winning plaudits for their attractive brand of attacking football and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that come May they could complete their rise up the league pyramid by making the promised land of the Premier League.

In Bournemouth's first season in the Championship under Howe last campaign they over-achieved and finished in 10th place. While just avoiding relegation back to League One would have been the number one ambition, they even flirted with the play-offs during the second half of the season before securing a top-10 finish.

Bournemouth have been boosted off the pitch by the investment from their new owner, the Russian businessman Maxim Demin. He is an elusive figure who bought half of the club from Jeff Mostyn in 2011. Demin has reportedly invested up to 7million in return for shares of the club and harbours ambitions of supporting the club financially to help get them into the Premier League.

That financial investment means they are able to spend money and it is a long way away from Howe's early days at the club, when they scraped to rummage every pound together and were under a transfer embargo. The club smashed their transfer record to sign South African striker Tokelo Rantie from Malmo for 2.3million 18 months ago, landed Callum Wilson from Coventry for an undisclosed fee (touted to be between 2million and 3million) this summer, and this month have reportedly seen bids of 1.5million and 2million for Demerai Gray turned down by Birmingham City.

It is not a case of Howe simply opening the cheque book to create success, as the manager is renowned for developing younger players.

He has not frivolously splashed the club's new-found millions on big-name signings in a desperate hunt for success. Instead, Howe has blended experienced professionals with developing youngsters and the odd big signing.

A look at the current Bournemouth squad shows experienced Premier League players like Lee Camp, Elliot Ward and the veteran Ian Harte mixed with the likes of Dan Gosling and Junior Stanislas, players who have tasted the top division and are striving to get back there.

While Bournemouth look minnows on paper, with their 12,000-capacity stadium they cannot be under-estimated. This is a team moving onwards and upwards in the right direction and with one of the hottest young managerial prospects in England.

They are prospering against all odds in a Championship that is filled with big teams and some that possibly unfairly benefit from large parachute payments after relegation from the Premier League. While Bournemouth's spending and wage bill has increased, they are still relatively frugal compared to some of the money-bags clubs in the Championship.

This season is only the fifth in Bournemouth's 124-year history that has been spent in the second tier of English football, and they are level at the top after 25 games with only five defeats so far. Key to their success has been their attack, with the Cherries having scored the most goals in the Championship so far. Wilson is their top scorer with 11 to his name, but they are spreading goals throughout the side as Brett Pitman, March Pugh and Matt Ritchie have all chipped in with seven each.

Howe will hope the defeat to Norwich is merely a blip rather than a sign of a full-blown wobble. There is still a long way to go this season and the top of the Championship is a fiercely competitive place, with eight points separating the top eight sides. Bournemouth face a really battle over the second half of the campaign and need to hope they are lucky in terms of injuries, as Howe's squad could really be stretched if they lose a couple of first-team players.

It would be a meteoric rise if Bournemouth did hold on and make it to the Premier League, but they have a lot of sides with seasoned Premier League and Championship pedigree chasing them down. It might be too much for them to remain in the top two, but a play-off place would still be a huge step forward as Howe continues to cement his reputation.