CHERRIES winger Ryan Fraser has vowed to use the impetus from his epic tussle with fellow Scot Alan Hutton to push for senior international honours.

Scotland under-21 international Fraser was a shining light during much-changed Cherries’ keenly-contested 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in the FA Cup yesterday.

The fleet-footed 20-year-old bamboozled his opponents during the first half with the Villa backline frequently resorting to foul means to stifle the wide man.

Direct opponent Hutton, capped 43 times by Scotland, also provided attacking impetus for the hosts but struggled to contain compatriot Fraser who revealed the hammer-and-tongs battle had suited his game.

Fraser told the Daily Echo: “I had met him a couple of times without playing against him so it was a good test for me.

“He plays for Scotland’s first team and in the Premier League every week which is something I aspire to so doing a job against him gave me a lot of confidence and I have to use this to push on now.”

On his showdown with Hutton, Fraser continued: “It works for my game when the full-back bombs on. I had the opportunity to break on him a bit more and tracked back with him to a certain point so it worked both ways.

“He got forward, I got forward, we kept getting at each other so it was a really good, competitive battle to be involved in. We gave each other a good game.

“When we went two down, I got a bit annoyed and didn’t really want to speak to him much but hopefully I made an impression.”

Meanwhile, Fraser was ada-mant referee Mike Dean should have brandished his cards earlier with Villa keen to halt his driving runs by any means necessary.

Fraser added: “The ref told me he had spoken to their players but if he had given someone a yellow card, it would have stopped it and made me even more determined to get at them. I tried to stay positive and just thought to myself ‘If they are taking me down, I know I’m doing something right’.

“I knew I had got into their brains because they were getting frustrated and I gained a lot of confidence from that.

“When we came in at 0-0 at half-time, we were disappointed because we had some great opportunities and I could not see them scoring.

“They had quite a lot of the ball and it took a very good goal for them to get in front. That put us on the back foot but from there I still thought we controlled the game.

“If we had got the first goal, we could have run away with it.”