KEVIN Bond says his late father John would have been willing Eddie Howe's class of 2013 to write two new chapters in AFC Bournemouth history this season.

Howe's men equalled a club record of seven successive league wins - set by John Bond's team of the 1970s - following their 3-0 victory at Shrewsbury on Saturday.

Maximum points from their final two games of the campaign could see Howe become only the second Cherries manager to lead the club into the second flight, emulating Harry Redknapp in 1987.

Handed his first coaching position in 2008 by Kevin Bond during his spell in the hot-seat, Howe struck up a firm friendship with John Bond, who was a regular visitor to the club's Canford School training ground.

John Bond, who managed Cherries during the halcyon days of the early 1970s and guided them to their first promotion in his first season at the helm, passed away in September.

Son Kevin, now assisting Redknapp at QPR, told the Daily Echo: “When I was there with Rob Newman, dad used to come along to watch training and he liked Eddie a lot. I know he enjoyed Eddie's company a great deal.

“Dad would be delighted that the club seems to have got over their troubled times and is prospering now. I know he would want Eddie's team to set a new record of consecutive wins and he would be rooting for him.

“I know he would also want to see Eddie lead them to promotion. If it were to happen, it would be a fantastic achievement, especially when you consider where they were when he took over.”

Bond, who was among the crowd to see Cherries beat Bury last month, added: “I didn't have a chance to see them at the start of the season but Harry told me they were playing some good football and the only thing they weren't getting were results.

“When the change of manager was made, I don't think anybody, including Eddie, could have imagined that they would go on to be where they are now.

“Apart from when they lost five games in a row, they have been non-stop awesome and have needed to be to put themselves in with a chance of automatic promotion. Anything else and it would have been play-off at best for them. It needed something miraculous and something miraculous appears to have happened which is fantastic.

“They have come this far and want to go up automatically but it is still such a close division. They need to focus on winning their final two games and not worry about anything else.”

Cherries supporters will have a close eye on events at Bramall Lane tonight when promotion rivals Sheffield United and Brentford lock horns, while Yeovil travel to Oldham.