NATHAN Ake admitted Cherries were in “a very difficult moment” but said it was a test “for everyone to see what we are made of”.

The Dutch defender has featured in the Dorset club’s past two defeats against Watford and Norwich after recovering from a hamstring problem.

He is also set to line up when Eddie Howe’s men host Brighton on Tuesday (7.30pm) in another crucial battle in their quest to avoid Premier League relegation.

Cherries are now three points adrift of safety after a 1-0 defeat at Carrow Road.

Ake said: “No one wants to go down in their career.

“I think this is a very difficult moment and a very good test for myself, for everyone to see what we are made of and to see if we can get out of it.

“At this moment, we have a situation going on here.

“It is not going really well at the moment with the whole club. It is hard but this is now up to everyone to get us out of it.

“Everyone knows the situation we are in, all the players. All of us have to get us out of it, I think it’s the only thing we can do.

“We have had a lot of injuries and stuff going on but only us, we can do it.”

Defeat to the Canaries was Cherries’ 13th from 23 league games this season, they have picked up just one point from a possible six against the league’s bottom side.

Assessing the contest, which saw Steve Cook sent off for deliberate handball after 31 minutes, Ake said: “It was tough to take. In the first half an hour we were bang in the game, created some chances.

“We were quite compact but after the 1-0 it was difficult. In the second half we tried and gave it our all and created another few good chances.

“They created some as well but we were unlucky not to get a draw at least.”

He added: “At the moment it is not falling but we can’t just say that, to be honest there was improvement from last week.

“But there is so much more we have to do better to start to win games because this is one of the toughest leagues in the world.

“You have to be on it every game to win games.”