HARRY Arter revealed a burning desire to help Cherries win the Championship had outweighed the possibility of wrecking his start to life in the Premier League.

New fans’ favourite Arter took a huge gamble by deciding to tread a disciplinary tightrope as Cherries brought down the curtain on their season at Charlton.

The midfielder knew adding to his collection of 14 bookings would have seen him hit with a three-match ban, ruling him out when Cherries kick off in the top flight.

Arter, who discussed the dilemma with boss Eddie Howe in the lead up to the trip to The Valley, bagged Cherries’ second goal against his former club in a convincing 3-0 win.

And the decision to play him was fully vindicated as victory, together with Watford’s failure to beat Sheffield Wednesday, saw Cherries crowned champions.

Arter told the Daily Echo: “I would be lying if I said it hadn’t been on my mind. I spoke with the manager before the game and we knew how important it would be for me not to get booked.

“We discussed the possibility of me not playing but, ultimately, we realised just how important it would be to try to win the title. I told him I was more than ready to play.

“I am responsible enough to keep my discipline and knew if I had been booked then I would have only had myself to blame. Not playing wasn’t really an option and you could see from the celebrations at the end just how important it was to everybody. I was delighted to have started.”

Arter, who was substituted 16 minutes into the second half, doubled Cherries’ lead following a mistake at the back by Charlton, his effort sandwiched between two goals from Matt Ritchie.

Boss Howe told the Daily Echo: “We wanted to win the league and wanted to play our strongest team. Harry needed to show maturity and discipline and that he can play without getting booked.

“I didn’t think it was an outrageous requirement to ask a player to do that. I thought he did it and did it well. He was part of a team that performed very well and it was one of our best first-half performances of the season.

“He has had an excellent campaign and should be very pleased and proud of himself for what he has done this season. He knew that the only person who would have been hurt if he had got booked would have been himself.

“There are quality players in our squad and we would have found someone else to play and he wouldn’t have been involved in the first three games of next season which would have been a huge blow for him but he came through it fine.”