EDDIE Howe hailed Jack Wilshere’s impact on and off the pitch after Cherries beat West Brom to truly get their Premier League campaign up and running.

Wilshere emerged from the bench just after the hour mark against the Baggies and promptly helped his new team relocate the verve that had characterised their first-half display.

And after seeing Callum Wilson’s cute 79th minute finish finally break the visitors’ resistance, manager Howe revealed the England international’s influence extended beyond his “absolutely terrific” half-hour cameo on Saturday.

“He’s given everyone a lift,” said Howe.

“There will be players in my squad who will be desperate to get close to his quality and to see how they can impress him.

“When you introduce someone like that into your squad, you can see the quality lift. I think it’s good for everyone on the training ground to see what he does and how he does it. Hopefully that inspires the rest of the players.”

While Howe plans to take a “step-by-step” approach to integrating Wilshere into his starting 11, the manager was thrilled with the players who started Saturday’s game.

Cherries passed quickly and intelligently, using the width of the pitch as they sought to open up West Brom’s typically rigid defensive lines. But Howe was equally pleased with his team’s work when they didn’t have the ball.

He said: “I thought we had a good mix today. In the first-half you saw what a really good football team we are. We dominated the ball and if we’d got a goal I think that would have been more than justified.

“But in the second-half we had to show resilience, dig in, our goalkeeper made a couple of great saves at key times and thankfully we got the goal.”

This was a first top-flight win in nine outings for Cherries. Regardless, Howe’s team were widely tipped for a comfortable campaign, something the manager insisted he would never take for granted.

“I think that’s one of the challenges we face: to keep everyone’s expectations realistic,” he said. “I’ve certainly not grown tired of the Premier League, It’s still a novelty to me

“It is always a concern when you’re successful that people think it’s a given you’ll be successful again and again and again. But you have to earn everything you get. You have to do the right things every single day.

“I don’t want my players to read that they’re this, that and the other. They have to prove that on the pitch. That’s the mentality that we have. We work the players incredibly hard and I still see the same appetite and hunger in them that they want to improve. As long as we see that I think we’re going in the right direction.”

As such, Howe admitted he was relieved – after a fortnight featuring the hullaballoo around Wilshere’s arrival and talk of his own long-term future -when the time came for the talking to stop and the action to resume.

“It’s always nice to play,” he added. “I’m a training ground manager. I love to work the players. The other stuff around the game doesn’t really interest me. It’s all about the football. That’s why it’s great to be back on the pitch.”