DETERMINED Philip Billing stressed his desire to take charge of games for Cherries and said: “I am always critical of my own performances.”

Despite being voted man-of-the-match by Echo readers on his competitive Cherries debut against Sheffield United on Saturday, the Danish midfielder said he “should have controlled the game” against the Blades.

Eddie Howe’s men had been set to seal three points when Chris Mepham volleyed in the opener after 62 minutes at Vitality Stadium.

But Billy Sharp’s strike at the death earned the visitors a point in a 1-1 draw.

Billing told the Daily Echo: “We knew it was going to be a tough game. Sheffield United were going to want to come to the Premier League and show people they want to stay.

“I am delighted to get the 90 minutes in but still I am always critical of my own performances. With my ability and what I know I can do – I should have controlled the game.

“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, it’s going to be hard but I just think I didn’t really have the control.

“I know what I can do and I know how I can control games. I don’t think I did that as I should have.

“Me and Jeff (Lerma) in there – we worked hard.

“It’s not like we played badly but with our quality in the squad, especially in midfield, I think we should have controlled it a bit better - even though they had three in there, which was tough.”

Frontman Sharp’s late leveller came in the aftermath of a free-kick given away by Billing for a foul on Luke Freeman.

But the £15million summer signing from Huddersfield described as “very soft” the decision to penalise him by referee Kevin Friend.

“It’s done but personally for me I remember in the game and, of course after seeing it, I think it’s a very soft free-kick,” he added.

“I didn’t actually do anything – all I did was turn around and he blew the whistle.

“After that we switched off on the free-kick, they took it down the side and when it got crossed a few of us switched off, including myself.

“We gave a soft goal away, which should never have been a goal and we should have had the three points.

“We grinded pretty hard the whole game. It would have been nice to win ugly, it wasn’t the prettiest game to look at but the fact we got one point out of this game – I’d rather have the one point than lose for sure.”