THE COLD light of the day is the best condition to evaluate matches according to interim boss Gary O’Neil, who revealed he preferred to analyse matches with “no emotion attached”.

That is not to say O’Neil does not care during matches, made evident by his booking for protests during Cherries’ 2-0 defeat to West Ham on Monday.

But rather than dwell on perceived injustices regarding refereeing decisions, the former West Ham man looks to be as objective as possible.

After a flying start to life in management with six games unbeaten, O’Neil and Cherries have fallen to back-to-back defeats in their previous two games.

O’Neil took charge of a Cherries side winless in three, having conceded 16 goals in maulings from Manchester City, Arsenal, and Liverpool.

When asked if that previous bounceback from heavier defeats than the losses to West Ham and Southampton in recent games could help his side, O’Neil told the Daily Echo: “I hadn't thought about it like that.

“I understand that we're going to lose football matches and we need to be ready to play the next one.

“So if you beat West Ham, Spurs are still going to come here.

“They're still a fantastic team, and they're still going to try and beat you.

“So whether we beat West Ham or lose to West Ham, we need to be ready for Spurs, and that will be the case.

“After Spurs, we need to be ready for Leeds, so the previous results don't play too much on our thinking, really.

“I think you analyse them for what they are, especially afterwards, when there's no emotion attached. You can analyse them very clearly.

“And as I said already, first half (against West Ham) we should have been better, second half we played well, and we move onto Spurs as a fresh challenge.”

The former Portsmouth midfielder had previously commented how he was always adept as a player at focusing on the next game, a strength he has taken into management.

“I don't really look at my own strengths or weaknesses,” he mused when posed whether his ability to detach himself emotionally when looking back at matches was a strength.

“I am aware probably of my weaknesses because I'm always trying to improve them, and make sure that I know where they are.

“If you're aware of them, then it's much easier to fix them.

“But no, I don't know (what his strengths are).

“I think I put a lot of thought into the game from our side, from the opposition side.

"That's probably one of my biggest strengths, the in depth thought that I put into the process of each football match.”