SIMON Francis insisted luckless Cherries could have had a field day at Leeds – despite putting on a below-par display.

Vibrant United harassed their shell-shocked visitors during the first half last night but Cherries went on to dominate proceedings and were twice denied by the woodwork after the interval.

Leeds survived the late dismissal of defender Giuseppe Bellusci and subsequent penalty missed by Yann Kermorgant to secure a 1-0 victory as the league leaders suffered a second defeat in three Championship outings.

But while the marauding full-back acknowledged Cherries had not played to their potential, Francis revealed his colleagues had been frustrated not to emerge from Elland Road with maximum points.

Francis told the Daily Echo: “On another day we could easily have walked away with three or four goals and a win.

“It was not our best performance of the season by any stretch of the imagination but we could have taken the points and got on with it.

“There were no excuses for the first half. We probably deserved to be a goal down because we gave away the ball too many times in bad areas which is not like us.

“We tried to play out from the back like we always do and that will never change. It is our philosophy but Leeds pressed us well and deserve credit for that.

“Against a team with good individuals you are always likely to get punished and Luke Murphy hit a wonder strike.

“It took the goal to get us going but in the second half we had a right go, hit the post, hit the bar with a penalty and had several balls flashing across the goalmouth.

“Unfortunately, it would not go in for us so we have to take it on the chin and move on.”

And Francis felt that Kermorgant’s miss from 12 yards had summed up Cherries’ fortunes as the club’s 100 per cent losing streak at Leeds continued.

“I would have banked on Yann scoring that,” he added.

“He is a very good technician with anything in or round the box. I thought he was going to score and maybe we would have gone on and won the game if he had but it was not to be.

"We have to look at ourselves, try to turn it into a positive and go again because we did not play anywhere near as well as we can.

“Leeds are near the bottom of the table and if we had played like that against top-six side then the punishment would have been harsh.

“It is disappointing and more frustrating because we don’t have a league game for a while now. Hopefully, we can bounce back against Aston Villa on Sunday and get a positive result ahead of the Watford game.”