EDDIE Howe praised second-half demolition men Marc Pugh and Tokelo Rantie after the pair had netted five goals between them at Birmingham.

Howe said: “Marc has been outstanding this season. He has really grown in the past few weeks and I thought this was fitting reward for his tireless performances.

"He is very good off the ball and sometimes the amount of work he gets through goes unnoticed. We need our wide men to be responsible and help our full-backs.

"He got his hat-trick and has chipped in with a couple of key assists in recent games. I am sure it will be a really proud moment to go home with the ball.

“I was really pleased for TK because he has been working hard at his game and it seems to be paying off. He looks a lot more confident within himself.

"He was confident to say he wanted the penalty ahead of his team-mates. We didn’t dictate who took it and he grabbed the ball. He stuck his neck on the line and the second one was a tidy finish.”

Victory came at a price for Cherries with Steve Cook and Harry Arter both picking up their fifth bookings of the season, ruling them out of Tuesday’s League Cup tie with West Brom.

Howe added: “It is always a blow when you lose players to suspension. When players are on four bookings, they are only one tackle from a suspension and we have been aware of that for a while. They will take their punishments and get themselves ready for the following game.”