JASON Tindall insists there is still time for Cherries' players to make a compelling case for Premier League inclusion as the clock ticks down to West Brom.

Cherries suffered their first defeat of pre-season yesterday when they were beaten 1-0 by Valencia at Vitality Stadium, a superb second-half strike from Fabian Orellana proving the difference between the teams.

Just two warm-up clashes remain before the Dorset club face West Brom in the top flight curtain-raiser on Saturday, August 12 – Yeovil Town on Wednesday and Napoli on Sunday.

And Tindall says Cherries' stars should do their utmost to give boss Eddie Howe a selection headache.

Tindall told the Daily Echo: "Of course, we are not just looking at the players in games, we are looking at them every day and how they perform in training.

"So far, we have been delighted with their application and the hard work they have put in, and we've been really pleased with the performances in the games.

"The Premier League campaign is a couple of weeks away and there are plenty more training sessions left and a couple more games, and come the first day of the season, hopefully, it will be a headache for the manager."

Howe and Tindall were buoyed by the return to fitness of Adam Smith and Brad Smith, who started against Valencia.

The former had sat out Cherries' previous friendlies as a precaution having felt discomfort in his thigh, while the latter had been struggling with a hamstring problem sustained in Australia’s World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia in June.

Both were on the pitch for just over an hour against the Spanish club and Tindall felt the full-backs had plenty of reasons to be pleased with their displays.

He said: "It was a really big boost. The main thing was that they got minutes under their belts and came through with no further problems. Smithy (Adam Smith) got a knock but nothing serious.

"They haven't really trained for the past couple of weeks and that was the first bit of football either of them have had. They both did very well and managed themselves through the game.

"As performances go, when you haven't played and against opposition like Valencia, they came in and did themselves proud."

Reflecting generally on the display, Tindall added: "Our defensive structure was very good so we were really pleased with that, although we would have liked to create more chances.

"That's an area we are not too concerned about because we are confident we are a team who will create chances and score goals. We have proved that over a number of years.

"In an ideal world we would have liked to have scored goals but I think the plus side was the defensive shape and that the organisation of the team was very good, other than perhaps the last 15 minutes where there were quite a few changes on the pitch."