STEVE Cook admitted he had been left “fuming” after Cherries’ lacklustre defeat against relegated Fulham and said: “We should be embarrassed."

The Dorset club became the first team to lose at home against the Cottagers in the division this season after a 1-0 reverse at Vitality Stadium.

Eddie Howe’s men had no answer to Serbian frontman Aleksandar Mitrovic’s 53rd-minute penalty, after he was fouled in the box by substitute Jack Simpson.

Centre-half Simpson had come on to replace Junior Stanislas after 23 minutes – the winger was drafted in as a late replacement at full-back after Adam Smith limped off in the warm-up.

Describing his emotions after the defeat, Cook told the Daily Echo: “Fuming. It’s not good enough to lose to a team that hasn’t won away from home all season – it’s embarrassing.

“Fulham are a very good team. It doesn’t matter if they’ve come up or they are relegated already, it means nothing. We should be embarrassed really with that.

“We started off really well and it only looked like one team winning. Junior then came off and it disrupted everything.

“We never really regrouped but we had some great chances. It was the polar opposite to last week (against Brighton) finishing-wise and team work.

“When you’re giving away a penalty like that it’s going to take it out of you.

“Once we went 1-0 down they kept the ball and frustrated us - the game petered out and it was really frustrating.

“Scoring the first goal in the Premier League is huge. We probably could have still been out there on Saturday and wouldn’t have scored.”

Defeat to Scott Parker’s strugglers was stark contrast to the performance which saw Cherries seal their biggest Premier League away win at Brighton a week previously.

And stand-in skipper Cook admitted he struggled to put his finger on the drastic difference in displays.

“I don’t know whether we get too high when we win and too low when we lose,” he added.

“It’s really difficult because we could be such a good team, I don’t know what’s holding us back. I don’t know if it’s our mindset.

“We still had top quality players out there and it just wasn’t good enough. I am just hoping the season is not going to peter out and there is a response next week.”

He said: “I was shattered in the second half. I was really struggling but you always try to give your best.

“I don’t think we can criticise our players for that often. I don’t think we go out there and decide we aren’t going to work or we’re not going to put ourselves about.

“But I think maybe we came off second best to a few challenges on Saturday. Last week we didn’t, we won every single one, on Saturday it wasn’t as high. That’s why we lost the game.”