BOSS Scott Parker described as “nowhere near good enough” his team’s second-half display as Cherries’ slump in form continued at Middlesbrough.

Big chances fell the way of Jaidon Anthony, Ryan Christie and Dominic Solanke for the visitors during the first half at Riverside Stadium.

But having failed to open the scoring, the Dorset club were made to pay when Anthony was judged to have brought down Isaiah Jones inside the box.

After referee Chris Kavanagh pointed to the spot, Slovenian striker Andraz Sporar tucked home the winner for Boro to send Cherries to a 1-0 loss.

Parker’s men have now taken just three points from a possible 18 in the Championship.

Assessing the contest as a whole, the Cherries’ head coach said: “First half it was very good. Three massive chances really, which we should score from or should put that away.

“Second half – nowhere near good enough.

“We came out second half. We looked second best to a lot of things. Duels, challenges. Every single duel we went into, they came out on top of.

“It gives them a platform and a structure in the game and we struggled at that point really. Overall, disappointed with the result and disappointed with the second-half performance.

“They came out aggressive, which we expected but really the three chances are very big for us – we needed to execute, which we didn’t manage to do.

“Second half we didn’t look like the team I wanted us to look like

“In this division, you struggle to win football matches or struggle to stay in them. The penalty decides the game, the longer the game goes on we look a bit desperate.

“They hit us a couple of times on the counter, which I get because we are obviously stretched and trying to go for the equaliser.”

The result means Cherries missed the chance to leapfrog Fulham and go back to the top of the division.

The Dorset club make the trip to Queen’s Park Rangers in the Championship on Monday, December 27.