EDDIE Howe admits Dele Alli's brace "killed us" as Cherries fell to defeat at Tottenham.

The England midfielder netted either side of half-time to put Spurs 2-0 up, before Moussa Sissoko added a third.

Harry Wilson replied with two goals of his own, but Cherries lost out 3-2 in north London.

Discussing the goals Cherries conceded, boss Howe said: "I think the key moments were the first two goals in the game. From our perspective, we’ve got to defend those situations better.

“We didn’t and paid the ultimate price for it.

“It was a great effort from the lads in terms of coming back and showing the character needed because, at 3-0 down, it was a difficult moment for us.

“We ended up with one chance to try to get a point right at the end.

“The lads in general played well today but I thought the first two goals we conceded killed us."

Both of Alli's goals came via lofted passes by centre-back Toby Alderweireld, something which particularly irked Howe.

He said: "You watch Tottenham play regularly and you see that’s something they look to do. Son makes very good runs in behind, so does Alli and Kane.

“Alderweireld looks for those long balls. It was something we had talked about, discussed and worked on.

“Sometimes you do those things and it doesn’t look like you’ve done the work when you play. That’s a big frustration because, apart from that, until that moment they hadn’t caused us too many problems.

“Generally, I thought we defended pretty well until the second goal went in. Then there was a slight hangover in terms of our performance from that point onwards.

“I thought we didn’t react great to that moment. Until Harry scored the goal and then we were right back in the game."

He added: "When you prepare as we prepare you try to cover all bases and get the team in a really good place to deliver a good performance.

“I thought during that first half there were some really good signs, some really good aspects of our play.

“I thought we caused them problems all through the game but then you concede the goals in the manner we did.

“The third goal you have to hold your hands up and say it was a great team goal from their point of view. The first two we felt we had to do a lot better with."