AARON Ramsdale believes being forced into making an early save helped settle him into making an impressive Premier League debut.

The 21-year-old stopper got the nod over Artur Boruc, Asmir Begovic and Mark Travers to start against Sheffield United after the four-way battle which took place throughout the summer.

And Ramsdale was called into action with just 33 seconds on the clock on his first competitive Cherries appearance when David McGoldrick broke through on goal, but he dived low to parry the shot away.

Sheffield United went on to earn a point late on as Billy Sharp cancelled out a Chris Mepham strike.

Recalling that early save, Ramsdale told the Daily Echo: “I always get nervous before every game, even if it’s under-21s football.

“There were nerves and to get that touch out the way so quickly was perfect for me.

“It just settled me down and I just realised that I’m in a game of football here, I need to concentrate.

“I’m quite thankful that happened and quite thankful that he didn’t get a good enough chip to score.

“For me to get that out the way just set me up and I was calm after that and just felt in control.”

Ramsdale joined Cherries from Sheffield United in 2017 having come through the club’s youth system and played twice for the first team.

And he admits the way his old club battled back to draw 1-1 left a sour note on his memorable afternoon.

“The overriding emotion is disappointment,” said Ramsdale.

“It’s my debut and it’s my old club but we’ve dropped two points which shouldn’t happen, especially at home and in the position we were in leading 1-0.

“I’m gutted that we couldn’t get the win, but I’m sure when it all settles down I’ll be over the moon.”

He added: “Me personally, I know what Sheffield United are about. I know all the staff, I know how much time and effort they’d have put in to stop us playing.

“I think they frustrated us and obviously there’s things that we need to improve on.

“I think we could’ve moved the ball better and things like that and minimalised errors. Credit to Sheffield United, they stopped us from playing our way and we’re just disappointed.”