BOSS Eddie Howe said he had no sympathy for Jeff Goulding following the striker’s quickfire sending off during Cherries’ dispiriting defeat at Grimsby on Saturday.

The frontman saw red for his part in an off-the-ball incident involving Mariners’ on-loan defender Jude Stirling just seconds after Goulding had come off the bench.

Goulding, who had replaced Brett Pitman in the 70th minute, received his marching orders without having touched the ball after allegedly elbowing Stirling.

His rush of blood left Cherries a man short for the final 20 minutes, with Grimsby substitute Ashley Chambers profiting to grab a dramatic injury-time winner.

And with an appeal unlikely, Goulding – who declined a post-match request to discuss the incident with the Daily Echo – will be hit with an automatic three-match ban.

Howe said: “I thought it was a sending off. It was a strange one because it’s not like Jeff. You don’t know what goes through players’ minds but it happened and we had to deal with it.

“I saw it and thought he was going to get a red card as soon as he had done it. I would always accept tackles. Football is a contact game and tackles are there to be made.

“But you can’t condone off-the-ball incidents at any stage of the game. I was disappointed because it left us with an uphill battle.”

Howe said the matter would be dealt with internally before adding that Goulding knew he had not “covered himself in glory today”.

Goulding’s exit came with the contest delicately poised at 2-2 after Cherries had twice come from behind to level thanks to goals from Lee Bradbury and Liam Feeney.

However, the Mariners made their numerical advantage pay when Leicester City loan striker Chambers popped up to score in the first of four minutes of injury time.

“I was disappointed because I didn’t think we played well at all,” said Howe. “I thought we got what we deserved. Grimsby were the better team, so credit to them.

“Bar our goalkeeper and two centre-halves, I thought we were poor. It’s a difficult place to come, they are fighting for their lives, they put us under a lot of pressure and I didn’t think we dealt with it very well.

“It looked like we might be able to cling on for a point but I don’t think it would have been deserved. We were on the back foot and didn’t really show much quality. That was disappointing because we have played well recently but dipped below our standards.

“We all need to have a look at ourselves and try to bounce back next week. It is very rare that I have been disappointed with a performance and think it has happened only a couple of times this season. This was definitely one of them.”

Howe also had words of praise for Cherries’ army of travelling supporters: “I felt for them because they made a tremendous effort to come here and it wasn’t a spectacular game from our point of view so I can only apologise for that.”