EDDIE Howe celebrated his first League Cup win as AFC Bournemouth boss and then admitted his squad rotation had given him plenty of food for thought.

Howe made no fewer than seven changes to his starting line-up as Cherries comfortably saw off south coast neighbours Portsmouth at Dean Court last night.

Midfielder Eunan O’Kane, one of the septet to have been drafted in following Saturday’s win over Charlton, bagged the only goal of the game early in the second half.

Despite the 1-0 scoreline, dominant Cherries created a host of other chances and deservedly booked their place in tomorrow’s second round draw, which takes place on Sky Sports at around 1.30pm.

O’Kane was joined in the Cherries starting line-up by Tommy Elphick, Ian Harte, Ryan Fraser, Richard Hughes, Andrew Surman and Donal McDermott – with Ryan Allsop, Simon Francis, Steve Cook and Wes Thomas keeping their places following the Charlton win.

Asked by the Daily Echo whether the performance had given him a selection headache ahead of the trip to Watford, Howe replied: “I think they have done their chances no harm. But that is what you want. When you are in my position, you want players making your decisions even more difficult.

"It means we are on the right track so long may that continue. You want players asking questions of you as a manager and saying ‘put me in’.

“That is the game. When you get given an opportunity as a player, you are in the eyes of the public and you should want to perform. The lads that came in were excellent and I think that shows the strength of the squad.

“Prior to the game, I felt I would not be weakening the team. Other people may have perceived that, but it was certainly not the case in my eyes. We have got a very strong squad and, whoever I bring in, will not let us down and that was proved by some very good performances. It certainly adds to my options when I am choosing teams for the Championship games.”

Howe, who had lost his two previous first round ties during his first spell as Cherries boss, added: “Every competition we enter, we want to do as well as we can so it was a real positive to progress. The challenge now is to see how far we can go.

“I thought we were good. The first half was a bit slow for my liking but it wasn’t totally unexpected because we knew Portsmouth would be resolute and compact. We knew they would drop off and let us have the ball in certain areas of the pitch.

“We knew we would have to be patient and, the longer the game went on, the more spaces opened up and we got chances. We took one and probably could have taken more. But the clean sheet was the highlight for me. We looked tight at the back and Ryan didn’t have a lot to do.”

Howe confirmed Mohamed Coulibaly had missed out due to an Achilles injury but said the problem was not long term. He also said Matt Ritchie was “coming along okay” and confirmed Josh McQuoid would return to training next week. Howe would not be drawn on whether Coulibaly or Ritchie would be fit for selection against Watford.