EDDIE Howe watched Cherries undone by one of his former charges as Jay Rodriguez struck twice to condemn Howe's team to a painful 3-1 defeat by south coast rivals Southampton.

It had all started so promisingly for the hosts, when Nathan Ake nodded them in front on six minutes.

Their advantage, however, was wiped out eight minutes later by Ryan Bertrand's fiercely struck effort.

Rodriguez, who played under Howe at Burnley, pounced from close range to turn the contest on its head shortly after the break.

He then delivered the knockout blow, scoring a wondrous long-range goal with five minutes to play.

Cherries forged ahead with their first attack of note. Harry Arter and Adam Smith traded passes at a short corner on the right, with Arter then finding Jack Wilshere, roaming at the perimeter of Saints' area.

Wilshere, luxuriating in the space afforded him by a visiting backline bereft of any urgency, sized up his options and dug out a cross to the back post, where Ake darted in front of a statuesque Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to head inside Fraser Forster's right-hand post.

Cherries were making merry down the visitors' left and Simon Francis soon seized on Sofiane Boufal's sloppy touch to pass to Joshua King inside the box.

Forster, however, did just enough to keep his team's deficit at one, the Saints No1 taking the sting out of King's shot and grateful to see the ball come to rest directly behind him, after the Norwegian had wriggled free of Maya Yoshida to fire on goal

The visitors' threat had been limited to an early Bertrand corner, clawed out at his near-post by Artur Boruc, when their first bout of convincing possession ended with them drawing level.

Bertrand received possession on the left flank –after the ball had been shuffled to and fro across the pitch – and drifted beyond Smith all too facilely.

Encouraged by the lack of any covering challenge to keep ploughing on, the full back did just that. On arriving in the box, Bertrand shifted the ball away from Francis and drilled unerringly across Boruc and into the net.

Suddenly Cherries looked jittery.

Arter and Wilshere got in a muddle at the edge of their own box, enabling Nathan Redmond to nip in and feed Boufal for a shot that nicked off Steve Cook on its way to Boruc

Francis was then perfectly placed to intercept Redmond's delivery, otherwise destined for Rodriguez, yards from goal.

And Redmond passed up a golden opportunity when he totally fluffed his shot after Bertrand's latest raid had ended with the England international skilfully picking out his unmarked team-mate in the middle of the box.

Indeed, the joy Bertrand was experiencing whenever he broke forward seemed to be the topic of conversation when Francis, Smith and Howe engaged in a pre-interval conflab by the touchline.

Ake denied Redmond with a last-ditch tackle immediately after the break -–but Saints would soon have the lead their more progressive football merited.

Rodriguez applied the finishing touch, but the goal was all about Steven Davis, a half-time replacement for Harrison Reed.

The Northern Irishman shifted play forward to Boufal and continued his run into the right of Cherries' box to receive a cute return flick from the Moroccan international.

With Boruc and Cook desperately closing on him, Davis coolly lifted the ball over the pair of them and found Rodriguez, beating Francis to the punch and forcing home.

Howe introduced Ryan Fraser and Benik Afobe in quick succession in an attempt to inject some life into his curiously subdued team.

Between times, Boruc had to dig Cook out of a hole after Rodriguez robbed the defender on Cherries' right and made an immediate beeline for goal, only for his shot to meet its match in the smothering Pole.

Far from showing any hint that a stirring revival was on the cards, Cherries were occupied by trying to limit the damage.

Ake applied a vital block on Hojbjerg's shot following yet another Bertrand overlap and cross, before Redmond bent narrowly over with 10 minutes to play.

Cherries, meanwhile, were restricted to a string of set-pieces that all amounted to nothing.

When Fraser did finally get to the byline and fire across the six-yard box there were no takers.

Rodriguez then killed the contest with a real howitzer of a strike.

There didn't seem much on for the England international, when the ball cannoned off Redmond's chest after Cook's attempt at stopping the winger's run across the fringe of the area.

But the best goal-getters sense opportunity at every turn. Rodriguez spun and sent a viciously moving strike into the top-left corner of goal to send the travelling support into a frenzy.

Forster needed two goes to cling onto Cook's stoppage time effort in an echo of the conclusion to Cherries' recent comeback victory over Liverpool.

There, however, the comparison between the two matches ends.

Cherries (4-4-1-1): Boruc; Francis, Cook, Ake, Daniels; A Smith, Arter, Wilshere, Pugh (Fraser, 55); King (Ibe ,72); Wilson (Afobe, 64).

Unused subs: Gosling, B Smith, Mings, Federici (g/k).

Southampton (4-3-3): Forster; Soares, Yoshida, Van Dijk, Bertrand; Reed (Davis, h-t), Hojbjerg, Clasie; Redmond, Rodriguez (Long), Boufal (Tadic, 62).

Unused subs: Fonte, Martina, Ward-Prowse, Taylor (g/k).

Bookings: Boufal, Clasie, Davis.

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (County Durham).