Cook wants Cherries to benefit from international break

Steve Cook believes the international break came at just the right time for Bournemouth as they look to bounce back from slipping up against bottom side Sunderland.

The Cherries were stunned by David Moyes’ side last time out, with Jermain Defoe’s penalty 15 minutes from time proving the winner.

That was enough to drop Bournemouth out of the top half of the table, and Cook knows they have to be much better on the return from international action.

They will travel to Stoke next Saturday, with the Potters one point and one place ahead of them in the table, and Cook wants the team to learn from their loss to the Black Cats.

(Warren Little/Getty Images)

He said: “We’re going to need this week to reflect and get over that result but we have to find some character and bounce back.

“Maybe this break has come at a good time and we can get to the training pitch and try and work out what went wrong.

“We’ve got to continue to look up. We’ve got a tough run of games but they are definitely winnable. We need to pick up points to change our position where we’ve found ourselves. It shows how quickly football can change.

“It’s been a very good start, now we’ve had a bit of a setback but we’ll get them along the way.”