PLAYMAKER Eunan O'Kane believes Cherries are deservedly reaping their rewards for sticking to boss Eddie Howe's footballing philosophy.

O'Kane played a starring role as Cherries registered back-to-back away wins thanks to a 2-1 victory over Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.

First-half goals from Matt Ritchie and Lewis Grabban saw Howe's men follow up their success at Reading where the same two players had been on the scoresheet.

Victory at Hillsborough also marked a triumph for Cherries' passing principles under Howe, with the managerless Owls relying heavily on a more direct approach.

O'Kane told the Daily Echo: “The manager is very clear on what he wants us to do and how he wants us to play. Technically, we are good enough to carry it out and, when we get it right, as we saw at Reading and at times against Wednesday, we are very hard to cope with.

“They bombarded our box with crosses and had a big lump up front. If anything, we were a little disappointed not to keep a clean sheet but, overall, we had to be happy with the win.

“As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. We are not the biggest or the most physical team so we have to go about it in other ways to try to stop teams. We try to stop the supply rather than have a battle when the ball is in the air and we carried it out quite well against Wednesday.

“Without being disrespectful to the way they played, I don't think I could play in their team because I just don't think I would get a game. It is not really the style of football that suits me and I don't think too many managers would fancy me playing that way.

“I am pleased with where I am, pleased with the way we play and with the manager's philosophy. Not too many teams in the league try to play the way we do so, if we can keep putting in performances like we have in the past few weeks, hopefully we will do well.”

O'Kane added: “We played better against Birmingham last week and lost. We made more than 450 passes and had almost 30 box entries in that game. Although stats can sometimes be misleading, if you had shown them to someone who wasn't at the game, they probably would have put us down for a two or three-nil win.

“Some days, you play really well and get nothing and, sometimes, you play poorly and maybe come away with a win. We picked ourselves up during the week and got back to winning ways.”