BOSS Scott Parker admitted a collection of Cherries’ fans booing at the final whistle after their 1-1 draw with Peterborough was “a bit puzzling” and added: “We’ve probably been a little bit of a victim of what we’ve done.”

The Cherries head coach was speaking after his side returned to the automatic promotion places in the second tier.

But the Dorset club only managed to salvage a point from their clash with the division’s bottom team.

Ryan Christie’s second-half goal cancelled out Jack Marriott’s opener, with Cherries just taking one point from their past two league games.

Asked whether the boos at full-time were to do with pressure or expectation, Parker said: “I’m not really sure.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m not really sure. It’s a bit puzzling.

“But that’s the way it’s probably been. I get there’s probably been a bit of expectation. We’ve probably been a little bit of a victim of what we’ve done.

“I am very critical of my team. I will always be very straight.

“I will never be critical of these players. If they lose games, they don’t lose it through a lack of fight and a lack of will and determination.

“That’s the way it is. We sit second in this division, three kids in this team from a category three academy.

“I think if any single person at the beginning of this season would have said we are going to get to March 8 and we are going to sit second in the division, we are going to have three young kids in the team – every single person would have bit their hand off. Including myself.

“But football is football and the world we are in is the world we are in and people forget that. People just see it for that and I understand that a little bit - that’s what we need to handle.

“At this present moment in time, my worry with the team is I need to work out how to handle that better for them, for their sake. That’s where we need to get out of that.”

Cherries are now 14 points adrift of league leaders Fulham with two games in hand.