MIDFIELDER Eunan O’Kane has compelled the Dean Court faithful to roar Cherries to success on home soil ahead of Saturday's crunch clash with Birmingham.

Cherries ended their seven-match winless run in style when they became the first team this season to overturn promotion-seeking Reading on their own patch last weekend.

The welcome three points came after Cherries had acquitted themselves well during a dastardly run of away fixtures where they faced teams from the top eight of the Championship in their past six road trips.

That cruel quirk of the fixture calendar was exacerbated by a dip in form in Dorset as Cherries failed to find the net in back-to-back home defeats against Bolton and Derby before spurning chances to topple Brighton 11 days ago.

But after finding more purpose against the Seagulls before registering their second away success of the season in Berkshire, 23-year-old O'Kane reckons Cherries supporters can help alleviate the pressure with home matches against the Blues, Yeovil and Ipswich on the horizon.

Discussing performance levels at Dean Court, O’Kane told the Daily Echo: “There's a little bit of added pressure at home in front of your own fans. They have come to see their team and they want to be entertained and we try our best to deliver that.

“Maybe we have to go away from that slightly and be more solid in our set up like we are away from home. Maybe that's something the manager will look at.

“But as long as the fans stick with us regardless of how we're playing then we have a strong group and will come through the tough times. The main thing after winning at Reading is to keep putting points on the board.”

O'Kane added: “It has been a testing time but we will be stronger for it.

“Looking at some of the games we have lost recently, there has only been one or two things missing from our performances.

“We showed what we were capable of at Reading so we have every reason to believe we can kick on now.”