IN-FORM striker Brett Pitman described Cherries’ demolition of Birmingham as “a big statement”.

Pitman paved the way for Cherries’ record-breaking victory when he opened the scoring with a finely-taken effort after just 129 seconds.

The Channel Islander, who netted five times for Cherries youth team in a 10-2 win over Cirencester in 2005, told the Daily Echo: “The biggest win I had been involved in with the first team before this was 5-0. This sort of result is probably a one-off in your career.

“People may look at it and think them going down to 10 men helped but, the way we have been playing recently, I think we would have scored a few against them with 11. For us to score eight and, arguably it could have been more, was a big statement.

“We are delighted with how we have been playing and it topped off a good few days for us. Any away win in the Championship is good. We are happy as a squad and are in a good place. To think we could have scored more says a lot.

“I don’t think you ever sense you are going to score that many. We weren’t particularly happy with how we had played in the first half even though we were 3-0 up.

“We scored a couple early in the second half and a few late on. Once teams are down to 10 men and getting beaten by that many, I think they lose a bit of heart and gaps appear and it is just whether you take your chances or not.

“Perhaps them going down to 10 men and us having a lot of time on the ball set us back a bit more than it should have. But once we picked it up towards the end of the first half and in the second half, we looked like we were going to score every time we went forward and that was pleasing.”

Asked how the memorable match had rated in his Cherries career, Pitman replied: “Right up there. Days when you win promotion and such rank higher because the achievement is massive. But on a single game and as a one-off this has to be at the top.”