DARREN Randolph is hoping his experience can help Cherries away from the Premier League relegation zone, before admitting: “Bournemouth have been my bogey team over the years!”

The 35-year-old goalkeeper has arrived at Cherries from West Ham United to provide competition to Neto and Mark Travers.

Randolph, who played 50 times for Republic of Ireland, has featured in England’s top six divisions, as well as in European competition with Motherwell.

“The position the club is in, I’ve been there in the past so I’d like to think I’ve got some experience and some other services to give to the rest of the team,” Randolph told afcbTV.

During his career, Randolph has been on the wrong end of some significant losses to Cherries.

They include an 8-0 hammering whilst playing for Birmingham City in October 2014, before featuring in Cherries’ first ever top-flight victory, a 4-3 success at West Ham United in August 2015.

Reflecting on the loss at St Andrew’s, Randolph said: “That season Bournemouth were probably the only team in the league that everybody feared to play.

“Free-flowing football, goals, power, pace, just everything.

“At that time at Birmingham we were struggling, we didn’t have a manager, the club was kind of upside down and waiting to see what would happen on a day-to-day basis.

“It was always going to be tough playing Bournemouth, they were probably top of the league at that time. And then we got a man sent off after six or seven minutes, and that’s all I choose to remember or tell you about that day!”

He added: “We (West Ham) played Bournemouth at the Boleyn Ground and we lost 4-3!

“So Bournemouth have been my bogey team over the years.

“But the next game was Liverpool away and I think we won 3-0. That was nice to have that.”

Asked how much he knows of Cherries’ rise up through the leagues, Randolph said: “I’d been to Bournemouth to play before the stadium was rebuilt, down one end there was no stand, it was just like a little wooden wall.

“If the ball went over, you didn’t get it back, you had to wait for a new one to be thrown on!

“It’s one of the stories in football you can’t help but notice and to follow.

“It’s really a dream story to see where the club was to where it is now.”

Randolph could be involved for the first time when Cherries head to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on February 4.