ANDREW Surman admitted Cherries “didn’t have that quality” to hurt Wolves in the final third at Molineux on Saturday.

The Cherries midfielder, who captained the side in the absence of injured skipper Simon Francis, described as “hugely disappointing” the 2-0 defeat to his former club.

Wolves took the lead through Raúl Jiménez after the visitors were made to pay for a defensive lapse.

Charlie Daniels gifted the ball to Portuguese ace Diogo Jota, whose deflected shot fell to the on-loan Benfica forward to slot home.

Substitute Ivan Cavaleiro then played a one-two with Helder Costa on the counter before racing through to beat Asmir Begovic late on.

Cherries bossed possession against Nuno Espírito Santo’s charges with more than 62 per cent of the ball.

The closest Eddie Howe’s men came to getting on the scoresheet was when Junior Stanislas rattled the woodwork with a free-kick just past the hour mark.

But Surman, who was playing his 400th league game, admitted his side lacked a cutting edge in front of goal.

He told the club website: “It was hugely disappointing. I thought possession-wise we were good but without really hurting them.

“We didn’t really create too many clear-cut opportunities and I think it was always going to be difficult when we gifted them the first goal.

“Their tails were up and then they were hard to beat. It was hard to break them down, they kept their shape well and they were always dangerous on the counter-attack.

“We just didn’t quite have that quality in the final third to hurt them.”

Defeat saw Cherries slip out of the top 10 of the Premier League ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final tie at Chelsea.

“It’s a massive opportunity missed to get three points but we will look forward to Wednesday now,” added the Johannesburg-born star.

“We just couldn’t create too much and we know we have to be better.

“If you don’t score and your luck’s out at one end you have to make sure you keep the door shut at the other.

“Unfortunately we didn’t do that on Saturday, the first goal gave us a mountain to climb against a good Wolves team.

“We have a big game on Wednesday now. We need to try to get this out of our system and look forward to that.”

Surman has returned to Eddie Howe’s starting XI alongside Jefferson Lerma in Cherries’ past two league games, with Dan Gosling and Lewis Cook sidelined through knee injuries.

And the former Southampton star believes he and Lerma are forming a positive partnership.

“I like playing with Jeff. He is a top player and when you are playing in a team you want to play with top players.

“I think our relationship is good and we kept the ball well at times (on Saturday).

“We moved the ball well, just when we got to the final third we weren’t quite good enough.”