ASMIR Begovic reflected on his actions during Cherries’ play-off semi-final second leg defeat to Brentford and insisted any criticism was “water off a duck’s back”.

With Cherries leading 2-0 on aggregate, the Bosnian stopper clashed with Ivan Toney when trying to get the ball, after the striker had pulled a goal back for the Bees from the penalty spot at Brentford Community Stadium.

Begovic also went down seemingly unchallenged during the second half as Cherries looked to defend a set-piece against Thomas Frank’s side.

TalkSPORT presenter Natalie Sawyer was highly critical of the keeper, labelling his actions as a “disgrace” and “farcical”.

But speaking to the Mirror, Cherries stopper Begovic was not worried about any flak that came his way following the contest with the Bees.

He said: “Of course you try and do whatever you can to win a football match, so for me that was my only goal.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it over the line - that was very disappointing, but everything else (the criticism) is water off a duck’s back.”

Having beaten the Bees 1-0 at home in the first leg, Cherries eventually lost their two-legged semi-final tie 3-2 on aggregate. Brentford went on to book their place in the Premier League.

Begovic added: “We should have done more in that first leg to kill the game off.

“The second game becomes difficult when we had a great start then we have an incredibly harsh penalty decision go against us. When the ball gets nicked off his knee onto his hand there’s not much you can really do. And then we get a red card and it’s an uphill battle.”

Play-off pain concluded a turbulent season for the Dorset club. Jonathan Woodgate was placed in charge until the end of the campaign following the sacking of Jason Tindall back in February.

Reflecting on Tindall’s dismissal, Begovic added: “It’s crazy because at that time you don’t think about it, you’re really just focused on the next game, when results are going against you, you just focus on how you can improve things day to day and get that next result and hopefully kick on from there.

“I remember waking up the day after the Sheffield Wednesday game and my phone is full of messages: manager gone.

“You don’t see it coming, it was a shock to everyone.

“But then when you think back at it, a team in our position, lost four in a row, that’s just not good enough and ultimately it’s a cruel business at times.”

He added: “Individually I enjoyed the season, I was able to play 50 plus games and contribute a lot. For me that’s obviously always an important thing and I really enjoyed my football again.

“From a collective point of view, it was obviously disappointing that we didn’t achieve our ultimate goal of promotion at the end, which we set out to do."