BOSS Eddie Howe felt Jordon Ibe’s display at West Brom had been a “big positive” from the defeat and hinted he could have played his way into contention for a start.

Ibe came off the bench to replace Marc Pugh as Cherries trailed at the break and delivered “as good a 45 minutes as we have seen from him”, according to Howe.

Although the 21-year-old winger was unable to help Cherries fashion an equaliser, he certainly did his chances no harm of keeping his place for the visit of Watford on Saturday.

Ibe, who experienced an indifferent debut campaign with Cherries following his big-money move from Liverpool, was one of their star performers during pre-season.

His last start came during Cherries’ 2-2 draw at Anfield in April, while his only 90-minute appearance for the club came in the FA Cup defeat at Millwall in January.

Howe said: “I thought Nathan Ake did well against West Brom and I thought Jordon did very well when he came on.

“They were the two big positives to take for us going into our next game.

“I thought Jordon’s ability to beat a man, front up people and be positive made us a better team.

“I felt he had a very good pre-season last year and he had a very good pre-season this year. We hope he carries on that form into the season. He certainly did against West Brom.

“It was as good a 45 minutes as we have seen from him. He was very positive, technically very good and he beat his man.

“He will certainly have left the game feeling very good about himself and, hopefully, he can transform that into more consistent performances.”

Howe added: “Nathan was very steady and looked like he hadn’t been away so it wasn’t all bad for us.

“Even though you expect to dominate possession, it is still not a given. You still have to earn the right to do it and we did.

“But it was just finding that elusive last pass or the ability to open them up which we missed.”