SIMON Francis could be part of a Cherries team that shoves Sunderland to the brink of the relegation trapdoor – 13 years after the north east giants tried to sign him.

The Cherries skipper reveals in an exclusive interview in today’s Daily Echo that one of his few regrets in football is resisting the overtures of then Black Cats boss Mick McCarthy.

Francs, who ultimately plumped for a move to Sheffield United in 2004, is hoping to potentially seal his team’s Premier League safety for the second successive year with victory at the Stadium of Light tomorrow.

And he admits the pressure of maintaining their top-flight status has weighed more heavily on Cherries this time around.

Francis told the Daily Echo: “We know the task at hand and we still have work to do.

“It is a little bit different to last season because we played with such a fearlessness then. We weren’t even concentrating too much on how many points we had at the time.

“We were just taking each game as it came and enjoying every moment of it. The whole second season syndrome has been around us during the past few months, we are aware of that. But I think we have come out of the other side of it now.

“We were on a really good run of form before the Chelsea and Tottenham games. They were tough to take, against the two teams that are battling for the title.

“But I thought we bounced back in the right way against Middlesbrough and that sets us up for a great game against Sunderland.”