CHERRIES development squad boss Shaun Cooper lauded his charges for their comeback win against Derby on Friday night, stating: “we’ll always fall back on our daily hard work”.

Second-half goals from Jack Stephens and Ben Greenwood swung the scoreline in Cherries favour, seeing them make it six points from two Premier League cup games.

When asked for his thoughts on the match, Cooper told the Daily Echo: “Could have kept a clean sheet, but no, really pleased.

“It was quite a different team from the one that played the last game and I'm sure the next game we play will be different again.

“So it's a case of maximizing the time we have before a game to prep as well as we can. If that's not the case, I always say it about us as an academy and a football club, we'll always fall back on our daily hard work.

“Our daily habits and our mentality and our togetherness, it always gets us through games. I think we've we showed that in abundance.

“I have to give real credit to our players, I thought we found it difficult at times to apply pressure to a decent football side in the first half.

“We spoke at half time about our mindset out of possession and our fitness levels and we knew we'd come good towards the end of the game.

“I think that proved to be the case. I thought we did look fit for the whole game, and I do think the subs that came on made a real impact with their energy.”

The development squad’s next Premier League cup games comes against QPR in November. They sit atop their group, following wins over Category One academies Brighton and Derby.