BOSS Eddie Howe threw his support behind Artur Boruc and backed the Cherries stopper to swiftly push aside his high-profile error against Watford.

Cherries had led 1-0 thanks to Glenn Murray’s 28th-minute opener but a Boruc mistake gifted the visitors a route back into the game just before half-time.

The Pole received possession from defender Sylvain Distin and his attempted return pass was cut out by Odion Ighalo, who shimmied past the stopper and slotted home.

Howe told the Daily Echo: “Artur is experienced enough to know, and has worked long enough with us to know, that there is no hangover from that mistake and that it’s business as usual.

“It’s back to work to make ourselves better, no matter whether we win, lose or draw.

“It was one of those things. We encourage our players and our goalkeeper to be brave and to take responsibility to play from the back. That is very much our philosophy.

“There is no blame attached to Artur, he has been excellent since he came here.

“He has made very few errors but, unfortunately, it is the life of a goalkeeper. You are going to make mistakes.

“It was just unfortunate with the timing of the goal and how dominant we had been in the half.”

Howe also said that Murray had not deserved blame after seeing his late penalty repelled by the inspired Heurelho Gomes.

He continued:”It’s the same as Artur. There’s no blame attached to Glenn, it’s just one of those things. If you are brave enough to take a penalty, there is a chance you could miss it.

“I think Glenn was excellent today. He scored a very good goal and was at the heart of most of the good things about our team, so there were very good signs for him.

“To score on your first full start is a good moment.”

Howe revealed mixed feelings over Cherries’ eight-point haul from their opening eight Premier League games, admitting that the manner in which his team had surrendered points had given him cause for concern.

He said: “It’s still very much a learning curve for us at this level and with eight games gone we are disappointed. We feel we should have more points as a result of our dominance in games.

“That’s a good sign but the way we are dropping points is a concern. Today was a frustrating day. When you look at the key moments, they went against us.

“We feel we should have won and it’s another game where we feel we have dropped points.

“I felt we looked very comfortable first half. I don’t really remember them having a chance. We didn’t have an abundance of chances ourselves but were totally in control.

“To end up not winning on the back of that is disappointing but this is the stage we’re at. We’re learning and getting better all the time.”

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