NEW boss Will Croker has challenged Bournemouth’s squad to live up to the club’s long-serving heroes in a bid to shrug off last season’s struggles.

Player of the year Joe Rees and Grant Hancox have been offered vice-captain’s roles ahead of the new campaign in a bid to ensure Lions bring through a new batch of battle-hardened talismans.

Croker told the Daily Echo: “There is a heartbeat at this club with the likes of Alan Manning, Scott Chislett, Sam Hardcastle and Jack Hennings who have been here for a number of years.

"They have carried this club through both the good times and the bad.

“When everything hit the fan last season, it was them who stood up and said, ‘we’re not going down’. The coaches drew on that and used it to galvanise the rest of the squad.

“But you cannot rely on four people so we have to try to widen the net.

"We have asked two relatively new players in Joe Rees and Grant Hancox to step up this season to try to take the burden off those top players.

“Everyone seems to have bought into what we want to do so far and once we hit our stride and the players really start to compete for shirts, I think we can have a really good season.”