CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe felt Stoke City’s early strike had sapped the confidence of his players this afternoon.

The Potters took a stranglehold on proceedings from then and claimed a 3-1 victory as Cherries succumbed to back-to-back Premier League defeats for the first time since November.

Howe said: “It was a strange one. For the first few minutes it seemed to me that we were excellent, camped in their half. Then, similar to the Arsenal game, a goal came out of nothing.

“It was a wonder strike from their perspective and we seemed to lose our way and confidence levels.

“We realise we need to be at our fluent best at this level to win games and for that first half, we weren’t.

“We were hesitant, negative with what we were trying to do and our movements were not quite right and at this moment, I can only put that down to confidence levels.”

  • For Howe’s full press conference, watch the video.