MARK Travers insisted his fruitful loan spell at non-league Weymouth helped him prepare for a rapid rise to Cherries’ first team.

The 21-year-old spent the first half of the 2017-18 season at the Bob Lucas Stadium, sensationally scoring on his debut in a 3-2 win at Bishop’s Stortford.

And the Republic of Ireland international admitted those months were pivotal to his progress.

He told the club website: “There were a few important points for me there during the loan, let’s start off with the goal – scoring on your debut’s always good!

It was 2-2 at the time late on and I came up, took the free-kick and got the winner, a dream debut.

“It was a great start in men’s football, but then I had a tougher patch, perhaps not performing to the level I wanted to.

“Gareth Stewart was with me at most games, it was about learning to take criticism and if I made mistake I had to learn from it to get better and not sulk and feel sorry for myself.

“I felt I was mature off the pitch but on it there’s a different side you need.

“That helped me when I came back to the first team at Bournemouth and trained with the first team.”