CHERRIES twice recovered from a goal behind to draw 2-2 with Watford and collect a point that sees them stay 11th in the Premier League.

A formerly impotent Watford grabbed a 24th minute lead when Christian Kabasele nodded home from close range.

Joshua King equalised for Cherries three minutes after half-time but just as Cherries appeared to be gaining a hold on the contest Troy Deeney headed home Tom Cleverley's corner to re-establish the visitors' advantage.

But substitute Benik Afobe's unerring finish with eight minutes to play rescued a point for Eddie Howe's side.

Cherries were slightly the more adventurous of the two sides during a cagey opening, most of the probing coming down a right flank patrolled by Adam Smith and Junior Stanislas.

It was from the left, however, that the hosts had the first effort of any note at goal, Callum Wilson unable to apply any convincing contact on Charlie Daniels' deep ninth-minute delivery and sending the ball limping past the post.

That was the catalyst for Cherries to shift through the gears - and, four minutes later, Heurelho Gomes needed all of his 6ft 3in frame to keep his side level .

Jack Wilshere was afforded the freedom of Vitality Stadium to lift his head and pick out Ryan Fraser's run into the box.

The Scot, with his back to the target, improvised brilliantly, flicking a header that was destined to travel a fraction underneath Gomes' bar, until the back-pedalling Hornets' No 1 got the faintest of touches to divert it over.

The visitors were either unable or curiously unwilling to get close to Wilshere.

One sublime, jinking run carried the attacker all the way into the box, where he slipped a pass to Wilson.

The home support collectively howled for a penalty as the striker tumbled under pressure from Jose Holebas.

Referee Lee Mason, however, took his lead from the player's more half-hearted appeals and waved play on.

Wilshere then took it upon himself to have a go at breaking the deadlock when he was fed by Stanislas 25 yards from goal

Gomes, though, was once more equal to what his opponents could throw at him, the keeper diving to his right to beat away Wilshere's fizzing effort.

With Cherries hogging possession and Watford's lone frontman Stefano Okaka cutting an isolated figure the only way the hosts were going to concede was if they cut their own throats.

And, on 24 minutes, they did just that.

Fraser blindly fired a pass back towards his own goal. Tyrone Mings was on hand to avert any immediate crisis, turning Okaka's eventual right-wing delivery behind.

From the ensuing corner, though, Steve Cook's touch at the near-post sent the ball gliding across the six-yard box and onto the head of Miguel Britos.

The Uruguayan planted the ball back into the middle, leaving an unmarked Kabasele to nod the ball home.

The blow of falling behind knocked Cherries firmly out of their stride, the home team's attacking cohesion and relative defensive solidity suddenly deserting them.

Mings could only head Younes Kaboul's long punt as far as Cleverley, who took a touch before sending a shot whistling past Artur Boruc's right-hand post.

Gomes did have to get his side – and Sebastian Prodl, in particular – out of jail three minutes before the break.

The Austrian passed the ball out of defence and straight to Stanislas, who promptly cantered towards the visitors' goal.

The winger's shot cannoned up wickedly off the covering Britos, leaving Gomes having to improvise once more to recover and claw the ball out from underneath his bar.

Captain for the day Andrew Surman then saw a close range effort crash into a defensive body after he galloped onto Smith's delivery – intended for Stanislas – but it was all rather unconvincing from the hosts.

Three minutes after the break, however, Cherries were all square.

King scored the goal, but it was all about Smith.

The right back received his throw-in back from Stanislas and surged in from the flank, nutmegging Abdoulaye Doucoure on his way.

When he lifted his head, Smith would have seen one black and red shirt available to pass to – that of King.

He picked him out expertly and the Norwegian swept in a simple finish.

No sooner were they level, than Cherries were perilously close to slipping behind once more. And again, they would have been masters of their own downfall.

Surman's woeful crossfield pass was seized on by Holebas. The Greek drifted by Surman, desperately trying to atone for his error, to drill an effort from 20 yards that Boruc gloved past his right-hand post.

Cherries had a decent penalty shout rejected when the ball bounced up and hit Doucoure's arm, before Fraser forced Gomes into his best stop of the afternoon.

Stanislas drove in from the right and found Wilshere, whose quick feet enabled him to wriggle free from Cleverley and supply Fraser on the left.

The Scot took aim, bending a shot towards the far post that Gomes reached with an outstretched right palm to push behind,

Just as the pendulum appeared to be swinging, Watford restored their lead.

Deeney adopted a position in front of Smith as Cleverley lined up a corner from the left.

The striker didn't really shift, except to jump, as the midfielder's delivery made its way towards him, but with Boruc ill-advisedly charging from his goal and Smith unable to get around Deeney's formidable frame, the Hornets' man's headed touch carried the ball into the back of the net.

Howe sent on Afobe and Jordon Ibe, with Marc Pugh's arrival following quickly after, as Cherries' boss sought to inject some urgency into his faltering side.

And those changes did the trick.

Surman ignored Kabasele slumping to the floor off the ball to slip in a pass for Afobe, running down the side of Kaboul.

The finish, in order to defeat Gomes, would have to be perfect.

It was, dispatched clinically across the Brazilian and inside his left-hand post.

Wilson directed a diving header from Ibe's right sided cut back past the near-post as Cherries went after a late winner, with referee Mason then spotting Cook's rather blatant handball in the lead up to Daniels' driving home in stoppage time.

Still these teams can't be separated in Premier League combat, this being the fourth draw between them in two seasons.

Cherries (4-4-1-1): Boruc; A Smith, Cook, Mings, Daniels; Stanislas (Ibe, 74) Surman, Wilshere, Fraser (Pugh, 81); King (Afobe,74); Wilson.

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

Booked: Cook.

Watford (5-4-1): Gomes; Kabasele (Cathcart, 85), Kaboul, Prodl, Britos, Holebas; Cleverley, Capoue, Doucoure (Ighalo, 88) Deeney; Okaka (Janmaat, 62).

Unused subs: Zuniga, Sinclair, Mason, Pantilimon (g/k).

Booked: Holebas, Kaboul.

Referee: Lee Mason (Lancashire).