JONATHAN Woodgate was not in a particularly chatty mood at Deepdale.

Having seen his side dominate the first half against Preston, Cherries more than merited their 1-0 lead at the break.

However, a familiar problem reared its ugly head again, allowing the hosts back into the game with Daniel Johnson pouncing on a weak Steve Cook clearance before driving forward and slotting home to earn a 1-1 draw.

It is not the first time individual defensive mistakes have proved costly since Woodgate took charge of the team last month. Chris Mepham’s intercepted pass out from the back and a reckless sliding Diego Rico challenge led to defeats against both QPR and Cardiff.

However, the tide had appeared to be turning.

Cherries had recently developed a more pragmatic approach at times, as evidenced in each of their last three matches. A long free-kick down the field by Cook led to Arnaut Danjuma’s winner against Watford, a scrappy set piece decided Wednesday’s win at Bristol City and even the opener at Deepdale came after Adam Smith’s long ball forward to Dominic Solanke, who in turn teed up Danjuma to net.

Woodgate was in jovial spirits during his pre-match media duties on Friday afternoon, and rightly so on the back of two impressive victories heading into the Preston trip.

He had made it clear in the build-up that just five away league wins all season for Cherries, as well as only managing to string three consecutive wins together once previously this campaign, was not good enough for a side with promotion ambitions.

There was a clear sense of determination for that record to change on Saturday afternoon. But after Lilywhites goalkeeper Daniel Iversen had denied Lloyd Kelly and Jefferson Lerma, Danjuma’s goal was all Cherries had to show for their dominance, something which came back to bite them.

Bournemouth Echo:

During a brief post-match interview with afcbTV, Woodgate said: “It feels like a loss.
“It’s not, it’s a draw, we can move on, we can build. The next game is big against Barnsley and then it’s Swansea.”

While seven points from three games and a point on the road in Lancashire can be seen as good progress, Woodgate’s assessment is certainly understandable.

Following Saturday’s results, Cherries have now slipped back outside of the Championship play-off places. While all still feels very much up for grabs with 11 games to play, that could feel very different after a pivotal run of games at Vitality Stadium.

Cherries have a week to prepare before Barnsley visit the south coast on Saturday, the side who leapfrogged Woodgate’s men and moved up into sixth this weekend after recording their seventh successive victory.

Bournemouth Echo:

When Cherries won 4-0 at Oakwell in December, they moved top of the table, 11 points ahead of 15th-placed Barnsley with 15 games gone.

The Tykes are now one point ahead of Cherries, but also have a game in hand, which they play against Derby on Wednesday evening.

Victory there, coupled with success on the south coast would leave Woodgate’s charges seven points adrift of the top six.

Three days later, third-placed Swansea, who have lost just two of their 14 Championship matches since mid-December, come to town.

Then, that weekend, Cherries host Southampton in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Woodgate spoke last week about sides towards the top of the division creating “momentum” in recent weeks. 

The slip-up at Preston has certainly halted any momentum for his side. 

And it is fair to say that if Cherries don’t click into a similar gear as some of those around them in the next fortnight, their hopes of ending the season with success could well be all-but over.