He said: "Everyone, to a man, I felt, was excellent tonight and I felt we delivered a real good team performance and scored four good goals.

"I was also really pleased with a clean sheet. You want to score a lot of goals, but we need to tighten up defensively at times.

"We knew we needed to respond after a disappointing result against Preston and I felt we certainly we did that tonight."

The Cherries' win saw them move two points clear of second-placed Norwich ahead of this weekend's remaining fixtures.

Tindall added: "We knew if we won here tonight, we'd go to the top of the league. That was a challenge and that was what we managed to do.

"We've got a couple of days now where we can recover and make sure we're ready to go again against a real difficult Swansea side.

"Tonight was not about any one individual. I thought it was a great team performance at a really difficult place in difficult conditions."

The visitors threatened to score inside the opening two minutes. Adam Smith set Surridge free on the right and home goalkeeper Jack Walton left his net unguarded as he raced out of his area to try and cut out the danger, but Surridge rolled the ball beyond the far post from a tight angle.

A rare Barnsley effort came from Alex Mowatt, whose 20-yard strike was kept out by Asmir Begovic.

The breakthrough came in the 12th minute when Smith and David Brooks combined to set up Billing who beat Walton with a low drive from 20 yards.

Bournemouth increased their lead in stoppage time at the end of the half when Steve Cook won possession, allowing Solanke to make a driving run into the area before firing low across Walton and into the corner of the net.

Rico added a third in the 52nd minute with a superb 30-yard effort which flew into the roof of the net.

Surridge wrapped up the scoring in the 68th minute, seizing on a loose ball and firing in a fierce shot which Walton got a hand to but could not keep out.

Barnsley head coach Valerien Ismael felt his side contributed to their own downfall.

He said: "We made too many mistakes and the opponent punished us. Bournemouth is one of the best teams in the division.

"We played well, created a lot of situations and pressed very well, but the mistakes destroyed our chance to win the game.

"I think we have to analyse the game but not be over-critical. This is our position and if you want to reach the next step, we have to improve.

"The last per cent was not there today to win the ball. We have enough time to recover and prepare for the next game.

"You have to find a balance because we have had three games in six days and now the next three games in seven days.

"We don't have time to feel down and have a depressive feeling. We have to have new mentality for the next game.

"We need a new focus. We must be effective and we have to avoid mistakes."