BOSS Eddie Howe said he had no complaints with Simon Francis's second yellow card and felt Cherries' tally of bookings had been their only "black mark" in the 4-0 win over Huddersfield.

Francis saw red on the stroke of half-time having collected two cautions in quick succession for fouls on Terriers' tricky winger Rajiv van La Parra.

Skipper Francis will receive an immediate one-match suspension, ruling him out of Cherries' trip to Swansea in five days.

Cherries also had booked Steve Cook, Harry Arter and Marc Pugh, while Huddersfield duo Florent Hadergjonaj and Collin Quaner brought to seven the tally of yellow cards issued by referee Lee Probert.

Cook, Arter and Adam Smith must avoid one further caution before Christmas, otherwise they would receive a one-match ban for reaching five.

Howe told the Daily Echo: "I didn’t think it was a particularly dirty game so to pick up that amount of bookings was probably a black mark on our part.

"We put ourselves on a knife edge with the early bookings as well. There were several players walking a tightrope and we couldn’t do anything about it from the bench at that stage of the game.

"We now have a few lads looking over their shoulder."

Discussing the sending off, Howe said: "It was right in front of us and I thought Simon took the man. I was half hoping he may have got away with it because there was a slight delay but I assume the referee consulted the fourth official and ended up making the right call."