SIMON Francis bagged his first goal of the season and then admitted Cherries’ defensive unit needed to be more ruthless – in both boxes.

Francis proved an unlikely hero when he headed home an equaliser to earn Eddie Howe’s men a 2-2 draw against Championship rivals Bolton on Saturday.

The 28-year-old, who was making his 65th consecutive appearance for Cherries, doubled his goal tally for the club with a stooping near-post header from Ian Harte’s corner.

Francis said: “We have some tall lads at the back and are expected to get on the end of things. We have great delivery so do need to score more from set-pieces.

“We also need to stop conceding because there have probably been too many times when we have. If we could sort that out and chip in with more goals then we would start climbing the table.”

Francis added: “When you come away from somewhere like Bolton with a 2-2 draw after being 2-0 down, I suppose you could say it was not too bad.

“But we were probably more disappointed than we were pleased because we felt we had the chances to win, especially in the second half.

“We had a good 20 to 25-minute period when they couldn’t get out of their half and I don’t remember them having any chances.

“We had a bit of a nervy spell towards the end when they had a few set-pieces but, all in all, I thought we should have won. But having gone 2-0 down, you can’t complain because it showed good character from the lads to come back.”