HARRY Arter is keen to avoid a final-day shootout at former club Charlton and knows consistency will be key in the promotion shake-up.

Arter played his part as Cherries ended a five-match winless run by registering a 2-1 victory over fellow Championship high-fliers Wolves on Tuesday.

It left Eddie Howe’s men three points behind leaders Middlesbrough with just 11 games remaining – the last of which is against the Addicks at the Valley.

Arter, who spent 11 years on the books at Charlton, told the Daily Echo: “Consistency is the key to any successful team. In recent weeks, one minute people have been saying we are out of contention and the next they have been saying we are in it.

“I think that is a silly way to look at it. With the way this league is and the teams involved, nothing is going to be decided until the last three or four games or even the final day.

“As a group, we know what we have to do to stay consistent and, if we can manage that, then I feel we will give ourselves a really good chance.

“It is so tight and it is impossible to predict how the league is going to finish. If one team was eight or nine points ahead then maybe you could look at it and say there was a good chance they would go up but that is not the case.

“Not long ago, Derby were six points clear of us and now you could throw a blanket over the top six or seven. It wouldn’t surprise me if it went down to the last day.

“Of course I would rather we were up by then but if someone offered me the chance of automatic promotion if we were to win at Charlton then I would take it. It is one of the fixtures I really look forward to and I would be confident we could take that opportunity.

“But I don’t want to look too far ahead. We need to take one game at a time, starting with Fulham and our attention is focused on that. With 11 games to go, we know what we have to do and it is a challenge we are all looking forward to.”

Arter was pivotal in helping Cherries climb to the top of the Championship, a position they occupied until they were displaced by Middlesbrough a fortnight ago.

He added: “It was a good feeling being top and the confidence was running high. It was a disappointing blip but you have to come through them.

"Although we didn’t lose all the games, it was still five without winning. Bigger and better teams have gone on longer and worse blips than that so it was good to get back to winning ways.

“The only way the Wolves result is going to mean anything is if we can go to Fulham and make it two out of two.”