BOSS Eddie Howe hailed his Cherries players for their "desire" – but said he was keen for them to shake off their tag as the Premier League comeback kings.

Howe was speaking after second-half goals from Jordon Ibe and Junior Stanislas had seen them come from behind to secure a 2-1 win over struggling West Brom at Vitality Stadium.

The victory saw Cherries bring to 16 the number of points they have salvaged from losing positions this season – the most in the top flight.

Asked by the Daily Echo whether he felt it was a good or bad statistic, Howe replied: "A bit of both.

"You don’t want to go behind in the first place because you give yourself a huge task, especially in this league.

"But, ultimately, to come back and get points from losing positions is so difficult because you have to leave yourself open and leave men up the pitch.

"You are always worried then that you may be caught on the counter-attack, as we were against Tottenham.

"But the players deserve a lot of credit for the desire to keep coming back.

"We don’t want to do it that way because it is the hardest way. But I would take any way at this stage of the season.

"On the back of the Tottenham and Leicester games where I felt we played very well, we didn’t against West Brom.

"But we won and didn’t win either of those two games. Football has a strange way of working. We had to dig very deep and, thankfully, we got over the line in the end."

The win saw Cherries move into 10th place and took them eight points clear of the drop zone with seven games remaining.

Howe added: "The only time you can start talking about being safe is when you are.

"People try to put words in your mouth and say this, that and the other but the reality is that until we are mathematically safe, we will keep going and keep trying to get as many points as we can and finish as high up the league as possible.

"I appreciate every day we are in this league. I don’t think we can ever take it for granted or think we have a divine right to be here.

"We have to earn that right every single day and every single game. The players are giving everything again this season to try to achieve that.

"It is such a difficult league and every win is so hard fought and none more so than this one. It was very tight.

"They are a very experienced team with a lot of experienced Premier League players and a very experienced manager. We had to find a way to win and we did without playing well.

"They are a good team, although their league position is tough for them. They are very competitive and it was a very difficult game to win but one which moves us closer to where we want to be."