BOSS Eddie Howe refused to point the finger of blame at Harry Arter as Cherries missed a golden opportunity to finally end their St Mary’s hoodoo this afternoon.

Arter skied a 78th-minute penalty deep into the stand after Ryan Fraser had been felled by Ryan Bertrand, but replays suggested the midfielder lost his footing when striking the ball.

In a largely stale derby clash, Cherries had a further opportunity to take all three points back up the M27 when Benik Afobe missed a second-half sitter with just Fraser Forster to beat.

Howe said: “It’s clear Harry’s foot slipped and it’s one of those things. I always have to respect the fact he put himself up for it and it’s great we are creating opportunities as a team.

“Ideally you’d think a player shouldn’t slip, but it’s a high pressure situation. We were excellent in the second half and dominated the final 25 minutes. On another day we could have scored two or three.”

Howe confirmed Andrew Surman was facing a spell on the sidelines after twisting his knee in the first half. He was replaced by Arter at half-time

Reflecting on the game, Howe added: “There’s two ways of looking at it. You could look at the two points we haven’t got, but I prefer to look at the one point we have and respect that.

“You can’t be too disappointed coming here and getting a point. It edges us closer to where we want to be and there’s no point sitting here being negative as that’s four games unbeaten and we can keep building momentum.”