Cherries missed out on a glamour tie with Premier League high-fliers Sunderland as old foes Notts County dumped them out of the FA Cup at the second round stage for the second consecutive season.

First-half strikes from Krystian Pearce and Lee Hughes put Paul Ince’s side on the road to the North East, before a Warren Cummings own goal made it 3-0 at the break.

And despite a much-improved second-half showing from Eddie Howe’s men, with substitute Steve Fletcher’s goal six minutes from time making it 3-1, it was too little too late.

Cherries have now scored just once in 180 minutes – a rarity during a season where goals have been the order of the day.

Ironically, when criticism of the Dean Court board’s ‘sell first, worry later’ policy is always around the corner, Cherries’ last goal before last night’s consolation strike came from Josh McQuoid. Remember him?

Of course, it is only two games since McQuoid left for Millwall, but Cherries’ failure to truly test Rob Burch in the County goal could well have seen Howe endure a restless journey back to Dorset.

The Cherries boss made five changes to the side that was beaten 1-0 by Hartlepool on Saturday, with Marvin Bartley, Stephen Purches, Liam Feeney, Lyle Taylor and Cummings coming in.

Adam Smith dropped to the bench alongside Fletcher, while Michael Symes and Harry Arter missed out through injury and Joe Partington was not included in the squad. Loanee Nicholas Bignall was not permitted to play by parent club Reading.

Pearce went close for the hosts after 10 minutes when his header trickled narrowly wide of Jon Stewart’s post, while Cummings’s speculative drive three minutes later failed to trouble Burch.

Stewart then got down brilliantly to save from Craig Westcarr after the Magpies forward had latched on to the loose ball inside the Cherries six-yard box.

But that chance seemed to galvanise the home side and Pearce handed them a deserved lead after 18 minutes when he headed home Neal Bishop’s cross.

Stewart could do little to stop the former Birmingham City trainee’s looping header, but questions will be asked of the Cherries back four, with Pearce in acres of space.

Ben Davies fired over on the volley after 23 minutes following some inventive wing work from manager’s son Thomas Ince down the left flank, while Anton Robinson blasted a rare Cherries chance high into the Haydn Green Family Stand.

Feeney’s curling left-foot shot on the half-hour was easily dealt with by Burch, but Ince’s side kept up the pressure – which eventually told when Hughes smashed home their second from close range 10 minutes before half-time.

The goal came after five minutes of frantic, backs-to-the-wall defending from Howe’s men, with Westcarr and Hughes at the forefront of the barrage.

And there was more to come.

Stewart beat away a goal-bound curler from Hughes five minutes before the break, but things went from bad to worse for Howe’s men deep in first-half stoppage time.

Ince, a thorn in Purches’s side throughout the opening period, tricked the Cherries full-back into a pantomime tumble inside the visitors’ penalty area before his cross was turned into the net by Cummings. Effectively, it was game over.

Howe rung the changes at half-time, with Lee Bradbury and Smith replacing Purches and Cummings.

But it made little difference as the shots on target column remained in single figures.

Marc Pugh had the ball in the net just before the hour mark, but was correctly flagged offside and although Cherries were brighter and more creative than their below-par first-half performance, County looked in little danger of conceding.

Hughes almost grabbed his second moments before being replaced by Lee Miller in the 69th minute, but the frontman’s header flashed wide of Stewart’s post.

At the other end, Taylor’s 72nd-minute shot on the turn was blocked, while Pugh’s cross moments later was intercepted by Burch.

It was much better from the visitors, but Ince’s side seemed happy to simply sit back and soak up the increase in pressure.

As a largely insipid clash looked set to draw to a close with little in the way of goalmouth action, however, Fletcher popped up to nod home Rhoys Wiggins’s cross before Bradbury’s shot came back off the post deep in stoppage time.

Magpies: (4-4-2) Burch; Darby, Edwards, K Pearce, Harley; Davies, Ravenhill (Woods, 3), Bishop, Ince (Hunt, 85); Hughes (Miller, 69), Westcarr.

Unused subs: Thompson, Spicer, Burgess, Miller, Nelson (g/k).

Booked: Harley.

Cherries: (4-5-1) Stewart 6; Purches 5.5 (Smith, h-t), Cummings 6 (Bradbury, h-t), J Pearce 6, Wiggins 6; Feeney 6.5*, Hollands 6, Robinson 6, Bartley 6, Pugh 6 (Fletcher, 82); Taylor 6.

Unused subs: Stephenson, Stockley, Tindall.

Booked: Hollands, Bradbury, Bartley.

Referee: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire).

Attendance: 2,881 (inc 268 away fans).

* Daily Echo star man.