HARRY Arter admitted Cherries' promotion dream could hinge on tomorrow's showdown with Middlesbrough on a weekend of three head-to-heads for the Championship's big hitters.

The Dean Court clash (12.15pm) is sandwiched between tonight's match between play-off contenders Wolves and automatic promotion hopefuls Derby, with current leaders Watford taking on Ipswich tomorrow (3pm).

Third-placed Cherries trail Boro by two points having controversially missed out on a maximum haul in a 1-1 draw at Cardiff City on Tuesday and the importance of not losing further ground is not lost on the Cherries midfielder.

Arter told the Daily Echo: "If we want to go up we have to beat teams like Middlesbrough or at least get some sort of result.

"Everyone calls these games six-pointers and usually you tend to ignore that but on this occasion it probably is the case and a challenge we are looking forward to."

But while Arter, who last week received an international call-up for the Republic of Ireland, acknowledged the importance of the match, he insisted Cherries would not deviate from their brand of passing football in pursuit of a much-needed result.

"We will always stick to our principles and never try to change the way we play," he added.

"The easiest way is to bang it long to the front man but we are not about that. Even when we are in need of a goal we keep our patience.

"We have a top manager who encourages us to play the right way. Personally, I would not want to be involved with a team that just likes to whack it up the pitch and I don't think any of our players would.

"Performance-wise, we showed a lot of quality at Cardiff and were undoubtedly the better team. It takes hard work to play the way we do but we enjoy it and I am sure we will get our rewards for sticking with it."