Howe reflects on ´two points dropped´

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admitted his side are on a learning curve after a mistake by Artur Boruc gifted Watford an equaliser in a 1-1 draw at the Vitality Stadium.

Glenn Murray had given the home side the lead after 28 minutes, but Boruc gave the ball away to Odion Ighalo who capitalised on the easiest of scoring opportunities, and Bournemouth’s frustrations were compounded when Murray had a second-half penalty saved by Heurelho Gomes.

Howe said: “I’m disappointed, we feel like we’ve dropped two points. We should have won today.

“It’s a frustrating day. When you look at the key moments in the game, they have gone against us.

“We looked very confident in the first half, so then it is disappointing to not see us go on and win the game. But that’s the stage we are at. This is a learning curve for us and we have to keep progressing and improving.”

Howe, whose side are four points clear of the bottom three going into the international break, refused to criticise his goalkeeper’s error, saying: “It’s one of those things.

“We encourage our players and our goalkeeper to be brave and to take responsibility to play from the back, that’s very much our philosophy.

“There’s no blame attached to Artur. He’s been excellent since he’s been here. He’s made very few errors but unfortunately it’s the life of a goalkeeper; you’re going to make mistakes. It’s just unfortunate today with the timing of the goal and how dominant we’ve been in the [first] half.”