WARREN Cummings still has magical Millennium Stadium memories but he insists Cherries will be desperate not to risk treading the play-off path.

The former club captain is confident Cherries will avoid the nail-biting end-of-season decider by sealing a place in the top two of League One.

Cummings was a promotion specialist at Dean Court and experienced both the play-off and automatic routes during his 10 years in Dorset.

A key man in Cherries’ 2003 triumph in Cardiff, Cummings admits the play-offs are special for clubs, players and supporters.

But the Scotsman, an automatic promotion winner with Cherries in 2010, insists that will not stop his old pals going all out to avoid the showpiece.

Cummings told the Daily Echo: “If you can guarantee you are going to go up through the play-offs, you would always go through the play-offs because it is an amazing day, you get a huge crowd, the occasion is huge and the prize at end of it is brilliant. But the players won’t want to do the play-offs for two reasons.

“Firstly, they don’t want to risk not getting promoted rather than doing it automatically. Secondly, and this is true because everyone thinks the same way, they won’t want to have to play any longer than they need to. They will want their holidays and they will want to start them as soon as possible.

“The play-off system is unbelievable and a great format. But the flip side is that you can’t guarantee it and, as a player, you are potentially going to have another month of playing football when you could be on holiday, sat on the beach with automatic promotion, which I fully expect them to go on and achieve now.

“The very least they will get, in my opinion, is second. I think Bournemouth will win the rest of their games this season.”

After a run of five successive defeats, five wins in a row have propelled Eddie Howe’s men into the automatic places.

Cummings added: “Since the return of Eddie, they have gone from strength to strength.

“They have got an outstanding chance because they have had their blip.

“They could easily have crumbled but they have showed remarkable character and resilience to, first of all, make their way back into the play-off challenge. But to still be looking to get automatic is an outstanding achievement in itself.”