DEFENDER Steve Cook was convinced Rajiv van La Parra had not intended to hurt him in the aerial duel that saw the Dutchman red-carded at Molineux.

Wolves were 1-0 up when van La Parra was dismissed following a coming-together with Cook just before the hour.

Subsequent goals from Harry Arter and Matt Ritchie propelled Cherries up to third in the Championship.

Sporting swelling on his forehead, Cook cleared van La Parra of deliberate intent and admitted the dismissal had turned the game.

He told the Daily Echo: “Initially it was a poor touch from me and I headed the ball and then got hit. I don’t know if he headed me or if it was an elbow, to be honest.

“I haven’t seen it back so it’s hard for me to say whether it was a sending-off or not but it was definitely the turning point in the game.

“He had every right to go for it but I got there just before him. That’s probably what killed him.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone from Wolves and I don’t think he needs to speak to me. He didn’t do it on purpose and that’s the game. There are no apologies needed.

“We were on the right side of a decision and we came away with three points.

“Maybe when you are up there you get those sorts of decisions. But we felt there was a handball on the line just before we scored our second goal. If we hadn’t scored after that then we would have felt a bit aggrieved.”

Cherries were off the back of three consecutive draws heading into Saturday but the 2-1 win in the West Midlands extended to 11 games their unbeaten run.

Cook said he and his team-mates were worthy of victory against Wolves, who also had Matt Doherty red-carded late on.

The 23-year-old continued: “After the first sending-off, we knew we had to keep the ball and try to box Wolves in.

“Once we got the first goal we felt we could go on and win the game. We could have had one or two more in the end.

“To come to a place like this and get three points is huge. We have to savour these wins because Wolves is a huge club.

“Hopefully, we can keep our unbeaten run going when we move into next week.”