BOSS Scott Parker was left "frustrated" with Cherries' performance as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Reading.

Dominic Solanke's early goal gave the hosts the perfect start, but they failed to capitalise as Tom Ince equalised seven minutes from time.

The point does take Cherries to within 11 of leaders Fulham, after the Cottagers were beaten at West Brom. They are also now three points clear of third-placed Huddersfield Town.

Reading sit fourth from bottom, having lost three in succession prior to their trip to Vitality Stadium.

Discussing the draw, Parker, who watched on from the stands as he served a one-match touchline ban, said: "Frustrated really. Frustrated with the performance tonight.

"I just didn’t feel we were at the levels we needed to be at really.

"We started the game well, scored a very good goal, lovely goal, but after that we didn’t really assert ourselves and didn’t look like the team I’d expect us to have looked today, players included in that really, I’m sure they’re the same.

"We just looked a little bit flat for one reason or another. We need to look over that and work out exactly why that is the case.

"Obviously a lot of games we’ve played, but so have other teams as well really. We just need to look into that."

He added: "We played well for the first 15 or 20 minutes and then the game just slowly went away from us.

"We were poor second half and I think on the run of it they deserved their goal really. They deserved the equaliser, because we just weren’t where we needed to be.

"I didn’t think that was an issue in terms of the fight. We just lacked that sharpness really.

"We were a little bit slow with the ball, we just lacked that precision. Poor on the regain in terms of them finding the next pass. The amount of turnovers we had tonight, we were just a little bit sloppy in general, our all-round game and we just need to look at that really.

"I thought Reading played very well tonight. They were a good side and they moved the ball and we struggled with that.

"We just looked a little bit flat tonight.

"Couldn’t get good pressure on it and we just struggled in that sense really. So probably a number of reasons and need to work out and eradicate them."

Asked if he was surprised by the performance after such a good start.

"It did initially," Parker admitted.

"Obviously scored a really good goal early on and I felt at that point really it was the goal we needed to springboard and really go and put some dominance on the game and we just didn’t manage to do that.

"In fact it went the other way really. I thought they grew the longer the game went on, they were growing into the game.

"So that was a little bit puzzling."