HUNGRY Steve Cook urged Cherries to keep their foot on the pedal for the final 12 games of the Premier League campaign and insisted: “We don’t want this season to slow down and falter.”

Cherries are just seven points short of the fabled 40-point mark, thanks in no small part to an electric start to the season which saw them take 20 points from their opening 10 league fixtures.

However, they have lost 11 of their past 16 games in the top flight and host seventh-place Wolves on Saturday (3pm), followed by a midweek trip to Arsenal and a home clash with title-chasing Manchester City.

Centre-half Cook, the only Cherries player to be ever present in the league this season, is positive about his team’s prospects.

He told the Daily Echo: “Every season we face in the Premier League, we want to get to the magic 40 points. Once we achieve that, we can start looking forward.

“We’ve steadily improved over the course of the Premier League. I felt we learned a lot from last season.

“We don’t want this season to slow down and falter – we want to be positive and start taking more points.

“We are sitting nicely right now. We have 12 games to play and there are a lot of points to be won.

“We have a difficult week coming up with the three games but, hopefully, we can take points from those.”

Having stormed to the Championship title last season, Wolves have enjoyed a superb campaign on their return to the Premier League.

Boss Nuno Espirito Santo has steered his side to seventh in the table, securing victories over Chelsea and Tottenham along the way.

Cook said: “Wolves are very hard to beat and have stuck with their philosophies from the Championship.

“They have never deviated from a five at the back and flowing football.

“It’s going to be a really tough game but at home we feel we can beat anyone.

“It’s very hard to comment too much because we have only played them once but he (Nuno) seems to be doing everything right.

“You can only judge teams when you play against them but they have had a fantastic season so far.

“Hopefully, we can take points off them and if we beat them, we will not be too far behind them.”

Winger Ryan Fraser admits Cherries must be wary of the threat posed by the Molineux side on the break.

He said: “Wolves have surprised a lot of people. They play a five at the back and are very rigid and good on the counter.

“But if we do well, we can beat them.”

Wolves are on a fine run of form having gone seven games without defeat in all competitions.

Nuno’s side defeated Cherries 2-0 some 10 days before Christmas, goals from Raul Jimenez and Ivan Cavaleiro sealing three points.