STEADFAST Steve Cook has urged Cherries to show “underachieving” Brighton no mercy and insisted complacency against his former club would be a recipe for disaster.

In-form Cherries host the out-of-sorts Seagulls in a televised south-coast clash tomorrow (5.15pm) hoping to build on a 100 per cent winning record during October.

The five-match run saw Eddie Howe’s men climb from 15th to fourth in the Championship before claiming a club-best last-eight berth in the League Cup courtesy of a 2-1 triumph over Premier League West Bromwich Albion.

In contrast, Brighton have followed back-to-back play-off berths with a sluggish start under summer appointment Sami Hyypiä which has seen the East Sussex side slump to fourth-bottom of the table with two wins from 14 league outings.

But Cook, who joined Cherries permanently from Albion in January 2012 following a successful loan spell, warned his colleagues to beware of a backlash from his former employers.

Discussing Brighton’s early-season plight, Cook told the Daily Echo: “You have to say they are underachieving at the moment. They have been in the play-offs for the past two seasons and would have expected to be up there again.

“I am not sure if they are going to be but they have a good team with a lot of quality players and will turn it round. They’re not on the best of runs but we have to be ruthless and make sure they don’t change that against us.

“The 8-0 (at Birmingham) means nothing if we don’t get three points from this one because these are the games we should be winning. We targeted this batch of fixtures and want to get as many points as we can before the next international break.

“We want to keep the run going and I’m confident we will not be complacent because everyone is aware of how quickly everything can change.”

Meanwhile, Cook reiterated the importance of Cherries concentrating on their own game instead of worrying about the threat posed by Brighton.

He added: “The manager will go through the plan in depth and it’s up to execute it. For me and the lads it’s not about finding chinks in the armour, it’s about exposing them.

“But if we focus too much on them then it might take something away from the way we play. They should be coming here thinking about ways to stop us because we are a real force at the moment, we are improving with every game.

“As hard as it will be to improve on recent performances, there are always things we can do better and if we can find another level against Brighton I am sure we will be fine.”