FOR most Cherries supporters, mid-table mediocrity would have been their Utopia at the start of the season.

As the curtain prepares to come down on Cherries’ maiden campaign in the Premier League, fans are rightly toasting a memorable chapter in the club’s history.

To outsiders and a host of football pundits, the possibility of Cherries preserving their top-flight status with two games to spare was a fanciful notion.

The perceived minnows from sleepy Dorset were disrespectfully viewed by some as like a competition winner. Oh how they chortled as they predicted a record-low points total.

While the season has been anything but plain sailing, the players ensured their doubters would feast heartily on humble pie.

For manager Eddie Howe, it has also been new ground.

His five previous end of seasons as Cherries boss have all had something riding on them – three ending in promotion, one near miss and a remarkable escape from relegation.

The holiday his players were accused of being on after they had lost heavily at Tottenham last month will be richly deserved once the final whistle has sounded at Old Trafford.

“I am delighted we have achieved our aim of staying in the Premier League,” said Howe, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo last night.

“I don’t think it should be underestimated just how much of an achievement it has been from the players this season.

“With everything that has been thrown at us, it has been really hard. It has been a tough test for a group of players who had so much success last season. But they have been able to follow it up with what I consider an even greater achievement.”

Asked where it rated on his lengthening list of feats in the Dean Court hot-seat, Howe replied: “They are all different and it is very difficult to put one above the other.

“Staying in the Football League with all the consequences we faced and the restrictions placed on us was really tough and emotionally draining as well.

“Winning the Championship and taking the club into the Premier League was an amazing feeling and something we will all never forget.

“But once you get there, you don’t want to come back down and diminish the achievement so staying in the Premier League has almost given winning the Championship the credibility it deserves.

“The one characteristic throughout those teams has been the players’ spirit, never-say-die attitude and ability to keep working as hard as they have. That has been the key.

“The success this season has been achieved through work rate. The stats showing how hard we work have been well documented. There is ability in the squad as well but it has been the work ethic that has shone through and we have picked up points as a result of that.”

Although injuries hit hard and a home defeat by Newcastle in November saw Cherries slip into the relegation zone, Howe’s heroes held their nerve and deservedly started to receive their plaudits their efforts merited.

Asked whether there was a time when he had feared the worst, Howe said: “I wouldn’t say there were times when I thought it wasn’t going to happen for us.

“There were times when you know you have to rethink strategies and realign certain ways of working and things you are doing.

“But I had those moments when we won the Championship, when we were battling to stay in the Football League and when we were getting promotions from League One and League Two.

“Within a season, it ebbs and flows, it is a roller-coaster. You have to try to work our problems and this season has been no different.

“There were problems to work out. People will think we have played the same way throughout the season and haven’t changed our philosophies, which we haven’t.

“But we have certainly had to think differently and come up with new ways of doing things which we have consistently tried to do and will consistently have to do again in the future.”