CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe saluted his victorious troops for sticking to the task following Yann Kermorgant’s dismissal at Bolton Wanderers today.

Callum Wilson’s expertly-taken brace sealed an unlikely 2-1 success for a Cherries team forced to withstand a spell of sustained Wanderers pressure following Jay Spearing’s equaliser.

With the scoresheet blank, French striker Kermorgant was given his marching orders by referee Andre Marriner for a high challenge on home midfielder Mark Davies nine minutes before half-time.

But Wilson went on to hit Bolton with a rapid blast within a minute of the restart and oozed class in rounding off Harry Arter’s pass on the break after Spearing had levelled with an effort from distance.

And while Howe admitted to fearing the worst when the Beast of Brittany was sent for an early bath, the Dean Court manager was adamant his side had deserved their maximum haul at the Macron Stadium.

Howe told the Daily Echo: “When you go away from home it’s difficult enough with 11 men so to end up with 10 in a game we had totally dominated was hugely frustrating.

“You did fear that would be the turning point in the game but it didn’t affect us too negatively and I thought we were very good.

“We didn’t change our style of play and while we had to defend very well at certain stages of the second half it was an outstanding win for us with some outstanding individual displays from our players.”

Howe said he would have to review video evidence before deciding whether to appeal Kermorgant’s red card but felt Cherries had again been on the rough end of refereeing decisions.

Moments before, Wilson was pushed to the ground by Bolton defender Matt Mills with Marriner awarding a free kick on the edge of the box when a penalty seemed a certainty.

Howe added: “I could see why the referee gave the red card, Yann’s foot was very high.

“All I will say in his defence is that he plays like that, he picks balls out of the sky regularly and sets up goals by playing that way.

“It wasn’t anything malicious but the lad was, unfortunately, in the way.”

On the Wilson foul, he said: “I‘ve only had one look at it and it was tight. My personal opinion was that it might have been inside.

“These things seem to be going against us at the moment. We haven’t had a lot of luck with referees and red cards so it didn’t surprise me when it wasn’t given.”