EDDIE Howe says Jack Simpson's red card against Girona gave his side a "good exercise" ahead of the new season.

The Cherries centre-back was initially shown a yellow card for tripping Marc Gual, but following a VAR review, saw it upgraded to a straight red.

Girona went on to make the extra man count, running out 2-1 winners in Barcelona.

And with VAR set to be introduced in the Premier League for the first time in 2019-20, Howe believes the Girona clash was handy practice.

He told afcbTV: "I didn't expect it (the red card) to be honest. But that's the beauty or the dark side of VAR.

"We're going to need to get used to it. It wasn't something that I expected from the challenge but obviously they've analysed it and decided it was a red.

"You can't argue with it, you have to get on with it.

"It's good that it happened, we had that period where you have to psychologically regroup and deal with the rest of the game."

He added: "I think that was a good exercise.

"I'm pleased it happened in some respects. We had to play with 10 men, which was a good thing.

"I thought actually that coincided with our best spell in the second half, so there's positives to take from that."