MANAGER Eddie Howe felt Cherries had lacked fluency during their 0-0 draw with Southampton yesterday.

The Vitality Stadium stalemate saw Cherries maintain their unbeaten home record in the Premier League this season.

Howe said: "I didn’t think we really got going and it was frustrating because we know we can play better than that.

"But you always have to respect the opposition and I thought Southampton made it difficult for us.

"We know we have to look at ourselves, analyse the game and come back a better team.

"In a game of few chances, we were frustrated because when they came for us, we didn’t take them but Southampton would probably say the same so a draw was probably a fair result.

"Southampton defended well and made it difficult but we didn’t have our fluency for whatever reason.

"We will look at it and try to put it right. It didn’t quite go for our attacking players, not through a lack of effort and you do get games like that.

"If Nathan Ake’s header from the corner had gone in, we would have won the game from a set-piece and you would have been more than satisfied with everything.

"But they will feel they had chances to win the game as well. In the main, I thought we defended their attacking players very well.

"But there was one moment (from Manolo Gabbiadini's header) where we didn’t quite get it right and we were pleased the net didn't ripple on that occasion."

Asked whether he felt the international break may have been a factor in Cherries' below-par showing, Howe replied: "The difficulty is you lose players, you don’t see them, you are working with a smaller group and, when they come back, you have a very short time to prepare for the game.

"But that would be the same I would say for every Premier League club. We are not alone in that.

"The difficulty for us was on the back of such a good run of results, you want to keep that feel but, unfortunately, we weren’t able to.

"When players come back, the feel is slightly different so it didn’t work for us today but we will go away happy with the point in the respect that we didn’t play well but we didn’t lose.

"From our perspective, I have always said my feet are firmly on the floor. I know how difficult the league is and I know you can’t anything for granted.

"There will be a sense of disappointment from everybody else at the result. More from me, there is a disappointment in the performance, I know we can play better.

"The result is what it is. I will analyse the game and try to find out where we could have improved."