EDDIE Howe watched Cherries slump to second-from-bottom in the Premier League table and admitted: “We need to rediscover our belief in the team.”

The Dorset club’s dismal run of form continued after they were humbled 3-0 at home by fellow strugglers Watford.

Abdoulaye Doucouré, Troy Deeney and Roberto Pereyra all found the net for the Hornets as they propelled themselves out of the bottom three.

Cherries, who were booed off at full-time, have now picked up four points out of a possible 33 from their past 11 league games.

Reacting to the defeat, Howe said: “It’s certainly not what we wanted and the performance wasn’t what we wanted either.

“We can only regroup, learn from what we've delivered, analyse the game properly and improve.

“We need to rediscover our belief in the team. For me, that's the only thing missing because we've got good players.

“The team we picked was a really good side with the ability to win games.

“With the run we've been on, it's just damaged us a little bit and I think that's the big challenge we face.”

He added: “I don't doubt the players' quality because they've proved and delivered it before. That's been chipped away at and that's my biggest challenge, to re-find that.”

Doucoure’s 42nd-minute opener came after Cherries keeper Mark Travers, in for the injured Aaron Ramsdale, failed to clear his lines following a short goal-kick exchange with Simon Francis.

“Confidence is such an important thing to any team and it just felt it was lacking from that (first) goal onwards, it seemed to dent us,” said Howe.

“They could play more in transitions and counter-attacks and we weren't good enough to break them down and build momentum which we needed.

“We just didn't execute what we wanted correctly. It happens but at such a key moment of the game and a key game, it's ultimately hurt us.

“But no blame attached to the players, they didn't mean the outcome to turn out as it did, it's something we have to learn from.”