BOSS Eddie Howe described as “an opportunity missed” Cherries’ humbling 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat at Burton Albion and said: “We lacked our usual swagger.”

Despite having more of the ball against their League One opposition, the visitors registered just one shot on target in a contest which was interrupted by no fewer than three floodlight failures.

And with Cherries’ hopes of progressing in the competition left in the dark, Howe took a dim view of his charges’ performance.

He said: “I see it as an opportunity missed every game you don’t fulfil your potential and play the way you want to.

“It’s desperately disappointing, we are kicking ourselves – we know we are a lot better than that. It didn’t really show in the match.

“I think we lacked everything. We lacked quality on the ball, we lacked intensity off the ball, we lacked our usual swagger. Certainly, we will have a lot of reflection.

“I need to go away, watch the game and pick the bones out of it.”

Howe made 10 adjustments in personnel from the starting XI which helped seal a memorable 3-1 success at Southampton in the Premier League on Friday.

“We made the changes in the knowledge that the players we were playing were full of quality,” he added.

“Most of them have a lot of Premier League experience, so we can’t use that as an excuse.

“I back the players we have. I back the squad we have. We have to see these young players play. There were some experienced players coming back from injury.

“For me, it was a no-brainer to play and pick the team that I did. I was just very disappointed with the outcome.”