EDDIE Howe insisted Cherries' recent struggles have "not made me question my role at the club at all", adding: "We have to fight back."

Howe's men are on a run of 10 defeats in 12 in the Premier League, which has seen them tumble into the relegation zone.

Cherries host fellow strugglers Brighton tomorrow (7.30pm), where a win could lift them out of the bottom three.

Asked how much the recent run of form hurts him, Howe said: "It goes without saying you live, breathe every second of it.

"I think it affects your life, it affects everything. When you in your own mind aren’t doing the job that you want to do, defined by results, it really hurts.

"For me there’s only one way to react. And that’s to fight back, keep going and try to prove people wrong."

He added: "It doesn’t make me question my role at the club at all. It makes me focus on the job, focus on the role, focus to try and win football matches. That’s all it does.

"I think that’s the same if you’re winning. You try and win the next one, if you’re not winning you try and win the next one. It doesn’t change.

"Everyone’s reaction to you, everyone’s focus around you changes but yours can’t, it’s got to be about the football."

Many pundits have criticised Cherries recent weeks following the string of defeats, with Howe's men losing each of their last four matches without scoring.

And the boss is keen to prove people wrong.

"My mentality and thoughts are we have to fight back," he said.

"We've talked internally a lot about our spirit and how that shows on the pitch. And I think at times it's been there. Probably at times it's maybe not been evident. That consistency and that mindset, I think has to be there in every moment in every game between now the end of the season. So that's what we're focusing on.

"But fighting back collectively, with our supporters, with everyone connected with the club that wants us to do well, that's what we have to really focus on now and turn all our energies against the world outside.

"We have to become very internal I think and use all the negativity around us in a positive way to show that we are still fighting and we can do it.

"I think it's about that feeling of, we're fighting against everybody. We're going to be written off, we're going to be questioned, we're going to have doubts around us.

"But internally, we can have none of that. And if there is that around us, then we have to turn it into a positive.

"We have to turn it into a reaction that says no, we are still here. And we are good enough. And now we have to go and prove it."

He added: "There is a part of the team that is playing slightly safer or making different decisions than they would normally make on autopilot when playing successfully and playing with freedom and doing well.

"The challenge for us is, I think is to try and get back to that place where you are on autopilot and doing things without any type of deep thought, because that's when you play at your best.

"The reality is that the pressure that you're talking about doesn't really exist. It's all created in the mind.

"It's really important to explain to the players, to get them to go back in time, why they started playing the game. Why they love the game and just getting that freedom and enjoyment back into their play.

"I think if you are enjoying something and turning up every day with that excitement of actually playing the sport that you love, you will play well.

"So it's really going back to basics with them and trying to get that feeling across."