The Cherries must put the defeats behind them now

A couple of defeats in a row and all of a sudden the Premier League does not seem like such a friendly place to be. Those games have gone now though and we are coming towards the end of the season. The bigger picture is that the team is in a great position and one that the fans would have ben more than happy to take at the start of the season.

Time to run out not thinking about the past but the future.

The reality of how late on we are now in the season is underlined by the fact that if the Cherries beat Aston Villa on Saturday it will relegate the Villa. The Cherries need to concentrate on taking this contest as a knockout bout and one where they can forget about the last few weeks and come into the game with a real sense that they can achieve something that helps cement their place in next season's Premier League.

While it is sometimes helpful to look back, the only memory that AFCB's players need to remember is the opening day defeat they had. That should be an incentive to help them put a few goals past Villa, while thinking too hard about the defeats at Spurs and against Man City are not going to make this next game any easier. It has to be about what AFCB can do in a positive way on the pitch that I want Eddie Howe to look at and not just the defence.

There have been no goals for the Cherries in the last two games and so there is every need to get some sharp shooting practise ahead of this next game as there is every reason to believe that chances will fall to AFCB's strikers and it will be whether they take them or not that could be the decisive factor in how they do against Aston Villa.