CHERRIES boss Eddie Howe felt Romelu Lukaku had been fortunate to avoid seeing red during Manchester United's 1-0 victory at Old Trafford last night.

Lukaku settled in the hosts' favour a tight Premier League contest when he headed home a Juan Mata cross in the 25th minute.

The Belgium international escaped punishment for clattering Nathan Ake in the early stages before picking up a booking for a foul on Harry Arter on the stroke of half-time.

Howe said: "In my opinion, the first tackle should have been a yellow card. He was very late on Nathan and we made that point to the fourth official.

"Then, he committed another foul which was a clear yellow so he should have been off the pitch.

"I don’t want to go on about referees again but he missed a couple of tackles by them and we got a yellow for the first one we made so that was difficult."

Howe said he had no complaints with an incident in the lead up to the United goal when Adam Smith appeared to take a whack in the face from Anthony Martial.

"I am not sure on that one," said Howe. "Adam went down but I am not going to complain about that one."

Asked whether he felt Cherries had been unfortunate not to take anything from the game, Howe replied: "Very.

"We were really good in the first half, especially the first 20 to 25 minutes. We dominated the game but the first time they got near our goal, they scored. That was difficult to take.

"We were good in most areas. We were disciplined out of possession and the players delivered the game plan very well.

"In possession, we looked like we had a real cutting edge and created chances right up until the end."