On Saturday, against Blackpool, Brett Pitman was a surprise starter in the line up at Bloomfield Road, but played his part fully, according to manager Eddie Howe.
The Cherries boss was quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying about Pitman: "I think it shows the strength of our squad that we were able to bring in someone like Brett, who was our star performer last year, to help us get the win. That’s what we need – we need the strength of the squad to help us at all times and it is very strong at the moment. I thought Brett did really well. He showed a really mature side to his game and put in a really good performance for the team. He would have loved to score of course, but he worked incredibly hard, helped us defend set plays and stopped a lot of long balls forward by his hard running".