JASON Tindall admitted Cherries "knew we had to win the game" as they ended their run of draws with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Bristol City.

The Robins had the better of a goalless first half at Vitality Stadium, but couldn't live with Cherries after the restart with substitute Arnaut Danjuma eventually breaking the deadlock with nine minutes to play.

The win lifts Cherries up to second in the Championship table, and preserves their unbeaten start to the campaign.

However, Tindall insisted it was key to end the recent spate of draws, with Cherries' past three matches ending level before they welcomed Dean Holden's side last night.

Asked how important it was to find a way to win again following the run of stalemates, Tindall told the Daily Echo: "It was really important. We knew what we had to do.

"We spoke about it before the game, we spoke about it that morning and we knew we had to win the game. That’s what we set out to do.

"We knew how important this game was, we knew how tough a challenge it was going to be.

"Bristol City are a very good side who have started the season exceptionally well. We knew what challenges we were going to face.

"But it was important that we did win the game and we turned one point into three points and thankfully we managed to do that."

Quizzed on the big step up in performance between the first and second halves, Tindall added: "I felt we didn’t show enough calmness in the first half. On the ball I felt we made some bad decisions.

"We just needed to settle down and show a little bit of calmness, find the pass when we were under pressure and we needed to play with a little bit more purpose.

"We needed to attack a little bit more. We needed to get our strikers good quality ball and I felt second half we came out with a real purpose, a real intensity and I felt we were the dominant side in the second half.

"I felt we were going to score with the sustained pressure that we had."