CHERRIES legend Ted MacDougall saluted the club’s achievement of staying in the Premier League and then admitted Eddie Howe had converted him from follower to fan.

MacDougall remains Cherries’ post-war leading marksman, having plundered 119 goals in 198 league games and another 25 in as many cup ties.

The 69-year-old, who now lives in Florida and works for GotSoccer, a provider of youth football software, always visits Vitality Stadium when he returns to England.

MacDougall said: “I have to apologise to supporters for everything they have gone through all these years. Until this season, I didn’t appreciate how it felt and what it really meant.

“I understand the fan thing now. I watch games on Saturdays and am a bag of nerves. My wife asks me who I am talking to and I tell her I am speaking to the television!

“I know what the club has been through and I am in awe of where it is now. It blows me away when I go back and I am very proud to be associated with it. It is wonderful.

“Eddie has been absolutely first class and it wouldn’t surprise me if he eventually gets the England job.

“He is very articulate and he doesn’t get carried away with all the highs and lows. He could easily have made excuses about all the injuries but I never heard any. For him, it was just a case of ‘this is the hand we have been dealt so let’s get on with it’.

“I speak to a lot of people and nobody has a bad word to say about Eddie or the club. To me, it is like an FA Cup story every week. It has been a phenomenal season.

“Some people might get upset because they can’t quite cross that bridge to the top four but it is understandable. The lads have done magnificently and everybody loves to watch them.

“People need to remember where the club was and just take it all in and enjoy it. We are in the Premier League, we have great players and we are part of it.

“That is the most important thing at this point. I think most people have enjoyed it and you would have to be very picky not to have been because they play a wonderful game and have been brilliant.”

Cherries were one of the most-watched Premier League teams in America and MacDougall certainly did his bit to promote the club.

He said: “I’m a walking billboard for AFC Bournemouth!

“People ask me who I support and I say Bournemouth. Before, they would have said ‘who are they?'

"Now, they say ‘oh yes, I’ve seen them. They are good and I really like them’!"

Cherries are due to jet Stateside on Sunday and will spend just over a week training in Chicago before flying north west to face Minnesota United on Wednesday, July 20.