RICHARD Hughes is confident Cherries can maintain their impressive goalscoring run and believes Eddie Howe’s men are reaping the rewards for an enterprising approach.

Cherries, who have more than held their own in the Championship, are one of only four teams in the top four divisions in England to have scored in every league game this season.

Hughes’s former club Arsenal top the Premier League having achieved the feat, while Division One leaders Leyton Orient and Nottingham Forest make up the quartet.

Cherries needed a late equaliser from Marc Pugh to score for a 12th game on the trot at Forest five days ago – a goal which saw them equal the club’s best run in the second flight, set in 1989.

Their goalscoring credentials will face another stern test when they visit third-placed Leicester on Saturday, the Foxes unbeaten at the King Power Stadium this season.

Midfielder Hughes told the Daily Echo: “Scoring in every game so far is an impressive stat and there are reasons for it.

“Anybody who has kept an eye on us over the past year probably won’t be too surprised by it because we are a team that always tries to bring the game to our opponents.

“We are not a reactive team, we are a team that tries to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and make things happen. If you do that and are set up to create chances and play entertaining football then you are always going to score goals.

“When you consider we have climbed a division into such a tough division, I think you can see why it is such an important and impressive stat. When you look at the other three teams, they are all stable in their respective divisions, to say the least.

“It isn’t as if the fixture list has been particularly kind to us and we have been to some tough places.

“It is due to all the hard work on the training ground and the team’s philosophy.”

While Lewis Grabban leads the goal charts with seven, Hughes believes Cherries are benefiting from the striking options at the manager’s disposal – Grabban, Tokelo Rantie, Brett Pitman and Wes Thomas.

He added: “Marc Pugh scor-ed to keep the run going at Forest and he is a wide midfielder so it is not fair to completely rely on your strikers.

“But we do have a good diversity of options up front. The four regular strikers in the squad recently all do different things and have different attributes.

“They can make good partnerships with one another so that is important for the manager.

“Considering TK has only been here for a short space of time, I thought he gave Forest real problems and that bodes well for the future. Our goal came from his direct running.

“We will always look to improve and get better but I think there are some important early signs that are very encouraging.”