BULLISH midfielder Eunan O’Kane praised Cherries for passing their way through the pressure at Reading and warned the Championship’s big guns: “We are a force.”

The 23-year-old justified his recall to the starting XI with a composed performance in front of the back four as Cherries ended their seven-match winless run with a shock 2-1 success.

First-half goals from Lewis Grabban and Matt Ritchie did the damage but it was the manner in which Cherries set about seeing the game out after the interval that really pleased O’Kane.

And after becoming the first team to conquer the Royals in their own backyard this term, O’Kane reckons Cherries can give their forthcoming opponents plenty to think about.

O’Kane told the Daily Echo: “The lads deserve a lot of credit because it takes brave people to play at 2-0 up. It would have been easy to lump it into the channels, squeeze up and keep the ball as far from our goal as possible.

“None of the players wanted to take that option and that courage to keep passing, even when we were in front of our own box, comes down to the manager’s philosophy. It shows that when we get it right, we are a force and teams should be worried about playing us.

"We needed three points pretty badly and to give the performance we did against a team pushing for the Premier League was incredible.

“On another day, we could have scored a couple more goals but getting the three points was the main thing.”