EDDIE Howe admitted Joshua King’s well-taken strike had been the highlight of an underwhelming performance against Bristol City on Friday.

King put Cherries ahead with an unerring finish but Andreas Weimann’s equaliser shortly before half-time meant honours ended even at Ashton Gate.

Cherries boss Howe said: “I was really pleased with Joshua King’s goal – that was a highlight for me. He engaged in a one-on-one duel and finished well.

“I’m struggling to pick out individuals because I don’t think the group functioned as well as we can. I thought we could have done a lot better.

“But we’ve trained the players really hard this week. We wouldn’t normally go to the levels we have so they would have been fatigued and that showed at times.

“We got the goal our start deserved and then seemed to drop off after that.

“It was almost as if we were expecting to go on and dominate the game, which didn’t happen.

“You have to give Bristol City credit for that. They came back and asked a lot of questions of our back four.

“I would have loved us to have been more ruthless and to have stamped our authority on the game, which we didn’t do.

“For a Premier League team against a Championship team, we’re disappointed with that.”