Surman: Cherries mental edge will shine through

Andrew Surman believes Bournemouth’s mental strength is the perfect attribute to pull them out of a sticky run of results.

The Cherries surrendered a one-goal lead to lose 3-1 at Premier League strugglers Hull City on Saturday, missing out on spoils that could have seen them enter the top half of the table.

That followed an equally-underwhelming FA Cup exit at the hands of League One outfit Millwall, with manager Eddie Howe paying the price for making 11 changes.

But despite their slight blip, Bournemouth are still sitting pretty on the Premier League ladder, nine points clear of relegation danger, while a hammering of Swansea City reaffirmed their place in English football’s upper echelon on New Year’s Eve.

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

And Surman believes results like those to Hull and Millwall can be overcome at the Vitality Stadium, even with the memory of spurning a three-goal lead to Arsenal still fresh on their mind.

“We’ve got to move on,” the midfielder explained. “We’ve got a massive game against Watford now and we need to make sure we pick up points against them. That’s a big game for us and we’ve got two big home games coming up.

“Mentally we’re strong, we’ve got good characters and a good team spirit. That helps when you do come back off some bad results, Millwall and this one have been very disappointing.

“I’m sure we’ll pull everyone together and move onto the next one. We can’t lose too much confidence; we need to look at what we can improve on, what we can change and we need to go into the next game full of belief.”