CHERRIES star Harry Arter hit back at claims he could have been sent off twice against West Brom – and urged Baggies boss Tony Pulis to ask his own player to vouch for him.

Pulis, a combative midfielder during his playing days with Cherries, felt Arter should have received two yellow and one red card for three different misdemeanours during the 1-1 draw.

Arter escaped punishment from referee Mark Clattenburg after he had reacted angrily having been caught by a high challenge from Gareth McAuley during the first half.

Pulis felt Arter should have been booked for his retaliation against McAuley and also said the midfielder had deserved a caution for a handball incident in the second half.

And the former Cherries boss was adamant Arter should have been given a straight red card rather than just a yellow for a crunching tackle on Darren Fletcher during the closing stages.

Speaking during his post-match press conference, Pulis, who saw Cherries come from behind to salvage a share of the points, described Arter as “a lucky boy”.

However, Arter begged to differ and strenuously defended himself against the accusations, claiming McAuley had later apologised to him for leaving stud marks on his leg.

Responding to Pulis’s observations, Arter said: “He should see the stud marks on my leg and he would probably think his player should have been sent off first.

“Mark Clattenburg said he would look at the footage because he wasn’t sure if there had been a high foot.

“Their player apologised to me after the game because he said he caught me so maybe he (Pulis) should speak to his players before he comes out and speaks out loud.”

Salomon Rondon, one of two West Brom players sent off when the teams had met at the Hawthorns in December, opened the scoring with a first-half header.

Artur Boruc prevented the Baggies from doubling their lead when he made a stunning save to push Craig Gardner’s penalty on to the crossbar after Tommy Elphick had been penalised for wrestling Craig Dawson to the floor on the stroke of half-time.

The introduction of Callum Wilson and Joshua King gave Cherries a spark which had been sorely missing before fellow substitute Matt Ritchie came off the bench to head home an equaliser eight minutes from time.

Arter added: “We would like to have won and I thought we were by far the better side in the sense of playing the right way. We knew what West Brom were about, I think everyone does now.

“It was disappointing the way we conceded the goal because we were well aware that their main and probably only threat would be from crosses and set-plays.”

Cherries boss Eddie Howe said he had been “very relieved not to lose” following five defeats in their previous six games – against Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton.

Howe added: “This is the kind of league where fixture lists can be very misleading. You go into a very tough run of games like we have had and everyone hopes West Brom at home is the winnable one.

“But there is no such thing as a winnable game at this level because every team is extremely tough to beat and West Brom are no exception.

“They are so well organised, so tough to score against and tough to even create chances against. The biggest problem we gave ourselves was going 1-0 down so early in the game because they got what they wanted and we had to run the game.”