GARY O’Neil is calling on his charges to invoke the fighting spirit of the Winter Gardens, with the interim boss stressing: “This club has always managed to find a way to fight against the odds.”

First arriving as a first team coach in February 2021, O’Neil is set to take charge of his five game as temporary head coach this weekend when Leicester City visit the Vitality Stadium.

Despite his short stint in Dorset, former Portsmouth and Bolton man O’Neil has clearly engrossed himself in the history of the club, referring to the famous night at the Winter Gardens that saw Cherries fans rally to help save their club from debts of £4.5 million, with £300,000 needed to be raised to see out the remainder of season.

Previewing Saturday’s game, O’Neil shared: “I think it is a different test, Leicester.

“They're extremely good with the ball, they've dominated possession in every game they've played, I think they've had more than their fair share.

“There are opportunities to try and hurt them if we can be good enough in our moments.

“I think this club, even if you go back a long way, back to the Winter Garden meetings and things, is used to being underdogs and we strive and we succeed, we're really comfortable with that.

“It's something that one of our big strengths is that this club has always managed to find a way to fight against the odds.

“And most games at this level we're going to be underdogs, and that's fine from outside, but that's not what we believe in the changing room.

“We're always ready, we believe we can be competitive and Leicester coming here gives us another opportunity to hopefully show how strong and resilient we are defensively, but also to cause them problems.”