BOSS Eddie Howe insists Cherries will need to be “at our best” when they face-off against Championship strugglers Barnsley tomorrow.

Howe’s men suffered their first defeat in seven against teams currently in the bottom five when they went down 1-0 at Charlton on Tuesday.

It was their first blemish having completed the double over Doncaster after beating the Addicks, the Tykes, Millwall and Yeovil in the first half of the season.

Howe told the Daily Echo: “I think it will be a similar test to Charlton. We are going to a team fighting for their lives and will need to be at our best.

“When you look back, we were terrific for the first 30 minutes against Charlton and, for whatever reason, we just didn’t capitalise on our good start and that was the frustrating thing. It really stung to concede so late and with no time to reply so we need to respond to that.

“You have to roll up your sleeves in any game and try to compete physically to make sure you don’t get overrun. You need to stamp your authority and I thought we did that against Charlton in a different way because we controlled the ball.

"We were dominant so didn’t really have that physical element and I don’t think that was a factor behind defeat. It was the fact we surrendered control of the ball and didn’t capitalise when we were on top.”

Howe added: “Barnsley have had a change of manager and have some good players. In their current position, their home form needs to be good to give them a chance of staying up and it has been.”