PLAYMAKER Ryan Christie described as “absolutely brilliant” the work of interim boss Gary O’Neil at Cherries and insisted: “The players are definitely playing for him.”

O’Neil, who stepped into the hotseat at Vitality Stadium following the sacking of Scott Parker last month, is unbeaten in his three games in charge of the Dorset outfit.

He started with a 0-0 draw against Wolves before a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory at Nottingham Forest.

The Dorset club also picked up a point away at Eddie Howe’s Newcastle on Saturday, following a 1-1 draw with the Magpies.

Asked after the game at St James’ Park what it had been like to work under the former Portsmouth midfielder, Christie told the Daily Echo: “Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

“I would have said that before he was given the interim job. He has been top.

“He has kind of stepped into that position flawlessly and it shows with the results he’s got – three brilliant results in the three games he has been in charge.

“I can’t fault him.”

Earlier this month, O'Neil admitted taking the Cherries job on a full-time basis would be a "consideration" should the board come to him with the proposal.

At the time of writing, the 39-year-old is listed as a second favourite for the role behind ex-Burnley boss Sean Dyche.

Quizzed on whether he would be happy for O’Neil to be considered full-time, Christie said: “Yeah. Absolutely, I think every single one of the boys would be happy with that.

“Just based off the previous performances. The game plans he set up have worked down to a tee – that gives you confidence from him on the touchline.

“Even in-game, he’s made tweaks. The Forest game he comes at half-time, changes it, we got a result.

“He has kind of really shown, for somebody that you would say with little experience stepping in, he has got some big results for us and the players are definitely playing for him.”

Christie’s current focus will be on Scotland’s Nations League fixtures over the international break, having played 85 minutes of Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Ukraine.

Assessing Cherries’ turbulent start to the season, where they have picked up eight points from seven games, the Inverness-born star said: “Especially after the past three games, we knew how tough the opening four fixtures were. We got through that.

“It was turbulent times but we’ve definitely kind of felt our feet now and performances like that (at Newcastle) will give us a lot of confidence and hopefully show the rest of the league we are no mugs.

“We can come to places like this and put on a solid performance.”

The Dorset club are back in action when they host Brentford at Vitality Stadium on Saturday, October 1 (3pm).