BUOYANT boss Eddie Howe was happy to see Cherries cash in their red card insurance policy – but urged his players to avoid making future claims.

Cherries were forced to play more than half of their Championship clash at Bolton with 10 men following Yann Kermorgant’s dismissal nine minutes before half-time with the score at 0-0.

Undeterred, Howe’s charges produced a resolute display with Callum Wilson’s brace sealing a memorable 2-1 success in the north west.

It was the second time in a week that Howe had seen his team depleted after Lee Camp was controversially given his marching orders in last Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat at Derby.

Howe revealed Cherries had regularly practised playing a man light and praised his charges for their disciplined display – even if the circumstances were not ideal.

Howe told the Daily Echo: “We train for the eventuality of going down to 10 men so it was nothing new for us.

“I thought we did well in a similar situation against Derby in midweek and you could say that was a little practice run. Against Bolton, it was for a lot longer but thankfully the result was different this time.

“But to give ourselves any chance we need to keep 11 on the pitch and it’s certainly what we’ll be looking to do in the future.”

Howe added that there was little attention paid to referee Andre Marriner’s controversial calls during the half-time interval.

He continued: “I had a feeling of frustration because I felt it was a game we looked like we were going to win comfortably. Then, the result was suddenly in the balance and could potentially have gone against us.

“It was a case of making sure the players just focused on what they could achieve and my main message was to for them to make sure Bolton's extra man wasn’t noticed through our work rate.

“The danger when you have 11 against 10 that you think it’s going to be easier and you stop working as hard. That was the reminder to our players and they deserve credit for how they reacted.

“I forgot during periods of the second half that we were down to 10. It didn’t look like that kind of game. I think the biggest compliment I can pay the players is that we had a man less but we passed the ball in the same way which isn’t easy to do.

“Our movement off the ball had to be very good and our composure and technical ability had to be of a very high standard. That should give us a huge lift for the remaining games this season.”