MANAGER Paul Groves knows he needs to address Cherries ’ indifferent start to the new season – and quickly.

Groves was left to count the cost of a shambolic defensive display as Cherries were on the receiving end of a 5-3 thumping at Sheffield United on Saturday.

Defeat ended Cherries’ unbeaten start to the League One campaign and left them in 18th place in the embryonic table with just three points from their first four games.

Although Tommy Elphick opened the scoring for Cherries, they reached the break trailing 3-1 following Ryan Flynn’s double and a wonder strike from Manchester United loan star John Cofie.

Richard Cresswell made it 4-2 after Lee Barnard had reduced the arrears and, although Marc Pugh netted three minutes from time, Nick Blackman’s injury-time penalty capped a miserable day for Cherries.

Groves told the Daily Echo: “If you come to Sheffield and score three goals, you expect to get on the bus with something.

“We need to address and analyse this, learn from it and improve on it. But we have got to do that very quickly.

“You can’t give away cheap goals. Whether it is giving away the ball or defending a cross in the box, you just can’t do it. We made them change after we had taken the lead. They became more physical and direct and we had no answer to that, which was disappointing.

“You would not have seen it coming after what had gone before. It was not as if we had been conceding lots of chances or had even looked like conceding lots of goals. It was a very different game to what we had experienced before.

“In our first three league games, I felt our play and the opportunities we had created had been more deserving of three points. Everything you do will take time but we are in a business where we need to get results. You are going to get ups and downs along the way.”

Sheffield United boss Danny Wilson was full of praise for Cherries and felt they had contributed to an exciting encounter at Bramall Lane.

Wilson told the Daily Echo: “Bournemouth played very well and are going to be a threat towards the end of the season. They came here with a really positive approach, which was terrific, and it made for a great game. The neutral would have enjoyed it.

“We scored five goals but were never relaxed and they were always pushing. I think Paul has done brilliantly.

“He gets his team playing very well and they are very difficult to play against. Some of the quality signings will reap dividends as they go along. They are a tough team to beat.”