ALAN Connell says work on retaining possession has been key to his side’s recent impressive run of clean sheets.

Cherries development squad racked up their sixth consecutive shutout on Tuesday afternoon, across three competitions, comfortably dispatching of Bristol City 4-0 at New Cuthbury in the Professional Development League.

That followed clean sheets against Charlton Athletic, twice, Colchester United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Moneyfields across the league, Premier League Cup and Hampshire Senior Cup.

The streak is all the more impressive given the result prior to this run saw them thumped 4-0 away at Hull City.

Asked if it has been a conscious effort to tighten up defensively since that loss at MKM Stadium, Connell told the Daily Echo: “We started slow, gave away some bad goals.

“We were obviously doing some defensive work before, but we’ve done some more since.

“We’ve probably focused more on our in-possession work if I’m being honest, these last four weeks.

“Obviously if we’ve got the ball, we don’t have to defend so much. We just have to be organised and make sure our positions are right, even when we’ve got the ball, to make sure that we stop any counter-attacks going the other way.

“We’re a team that want to have the ball. We’ve got footballers on the pitch that want to dominate the ball and it’s been pleasing in a lot of games this season we’ve done that.

“Our sixth clean sheet in a row is some achievement from the players.”

First-half goals from Max Kinsey, Michael Dacosta Gonzalez and Toure Williams set the tone against the Robins, before Finn Tonks completed the rout.

“There were some lovely combinations, we scored some really nice goals and overall it was a solid performance,” said Connell.

“I’m pleased. I think it was a continuation of the work the players have been putting in pretty much all season, but obviously we’re in a real good spot at the moment with recent performances and results.

“But once this game is done and dusted it’s about recovering and making sure all the good habits they’re doing every single day in training continue, to keep improving, to then go and perform in the next game.”