EDDIE Howe felt Cherries’ victory over Charlton had been reward for his players’ efforts on the training pitch during the international break.

Callum Wilson’s third-minute strike gave Cherries the perfect start as they deservedly ended the Addicks’ unbeaten record.

Howe said: “We came out of the traps very quickly, scored the goal and then had the professionalism to see out the game.

“What I will say is the players’ attitude during the international break was second to none. We worked them very hard because we saw it as an ideal opportunity to get some really good fitness work into them with the number of games we have coming up.

“It is all very well having that idea as a manager and coach, the players then have to do the hard work and hard yards and their attitude to that was excellent and I was really pleased they got their rewards with the three points.”

Victory hoisted Cherries into ninth in the table with just two points separating them from the play-off places. Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten start also came to an end following their defeat at Cardiff.

Howe added: “You can see from the table that it is so tight. With so many teams bunched together, it is no surprise the unbeaten records have gone.

"The only surprise to me is that they lasted that long because the likelihood is the results will be slightly inconsistent.

“The most consistent teams will end up where they want to be and, in the past five games, we have developed a winning streak and want to continue that for as long as we can.”