JONATHAN Woodgate admitted his surprise at the events of the past week at Cherries, but insisted he has not thought about becoming the club's permanent boss.

Woodgate has stepped into a caretaker role at Cherries following the dismissal of Jason Tindall on Wednesday morning.

Former Middlesbrough manager Woodgate, who only moved to the south coast to take a role on Tindall's coaching staff on Monday, finds himself in the hotseat for tomorrow's visit of Birmingham City.

The bookmakers currently rate the 41-year-old among the favourites to take the reins on a full-time basis, with the likes of fellow former England internationals John Terry and Frank Lampard also heavily linked.

But Woodgate is adamant he has not let his mind wander towards the potential of extending his spell in charge.

He said: "I haven’t thought about it, I just want to get three points on Saturday.

"I’m a caretaker manager for the time being. I’ve been told to the take the team for Saturday’s game and that’s all I’m concentrating on at the minute."

Asked if he sensed Tindall's job may be on the line when he arrived at Cherries this week, Woodgate added: "No, when I spoke to Jason, and I spoke to him a few times, I spoke to him a week ago on Thursday and Friday and over that weekend as well because Graeme Jones had left and he wanted to bring me in.

"He was keen to bring me in to help the group. So I didn’t think that anything like this would happen so early.

"Listen, I know managers come under pressure at times. I know it’s a cut-throat business, but I didn’t think it was going to be that early that it happened."

He continued: "I am surprised, but I know what football is like. I know what goes on.

"I’ve worked under probably 25 managers so I know if you don’t get results, sometimes pressure comes. But Bournemouth are still in the play-off positions.

"They’re sixth, they’ve had a blip, but they’re still there so they’re still in a good position."

Discussing his decision to join Cherries as a coach, having been out of the game since being sacked by boyhood club Middlesbrough in June of last year, Woodgate said: "You keep on learning throughout your career path and your coaching pathway. When I got the phone call off Jason to come down and help, I thought it was a good opportunity to come and learn from Jason, who had a fantastic coaching career with Eddie Howe.

"Obviously it didn’t work like that. That was the reason why I came down, because I could tap into his experience and learn."

Quizzed on what fans could expect to see from a Woodgate side, the interim boss said: "You can’t start complicating it because you haven’t got that much time to really stamp your authority on the team. I’ll let the players know the team this morning and we’ll go from there."