SHAUN Cooper insists Cherries' development squad "won't give up" on their hopes of progressing through their Premier League Cup group, despite a heavy beating at Arsenal on Tuesday night.

Cherries went down 4-0 at Boreham Wood's Meadow Park with Marcelo Flores bagging twice and both Jack Henry-Francis and Amario Cozier-Duberry on target.

That leaves them third in Group A, four points behind the Gunners with two games to play. West Brom top the group on 10 points, while Southampton are bottom with just two points.

Reflecting on the defeat, Cooper told the Cherries website: “I’m disappointed for the lads. I couldn’t fault their work ethic, our plan was to press them and we had some joy but things didn’t quite fall for us and we conceded two poor goals to go behind.

“At that point, you’re chasing the game against a very good side so you have to go after the ball even more and there’s a risk you may get picked off and at times we did.

“I thought some of Arsenal’s play was excellent and you can’t deny the quality of individual in their team, they’re a really fluid team.

“But even at 4-0 down, our boys kept chasing and chasing to try and get a goal, they showed real endeavour and character, and they deserve a lot of credit for that.”

He added: “We kept going. I think psychologically we kept going, even during the game they were trying to find different solutions to the problems we were facing.

“Tactically and positionally, there’s a lot of things we didn’t do right and there was a lot of messy moments where Arsenal came out on top when the ball was loose.

“Nonetheless, our mentality was the biggest thing to take away from (the) game and they deserve credit.”

Cherries are back in Premier League Cup action at Saints on January 27, before welcoming their south coast rivals to Vitality Stadium on February 11.

“They’re now must-wins for us to have any chance of getting out of the group," admitted Cooper.

"But they know what’s at stake and they know what’s required so as long as the attitude and application is at the level it was (on Tuesday), you never know.

“There’s still a slim chance and as you saw (against Arsenal), the boys won’t give up.”