EDDIE Howe played down his touchline spat with Paul Dickov after the managerial rivals had clashed in a heated first-half exchange.

The Cherries boss and his Doncaster Rovers counterpart were involved in an angry confrontation following David Cotterill's heavy challenge on Harry Arter.

Referee Simon Hooper opted to show Cotterill a yellow card as Howe and Dickov clearly expressed contrasting views on the controversial tackle.

Speaking to the media after Cherries' 1-0 win, Dickov took a swipe at Howe and his staff, as well as Dean Court midfielder Arter.

But Howe dismissed suggestions of bad blood and also laughed off claims Dickov had attempted a head-butt during the feud.

“I thought it was quite a dangerous tackle and Paul disagreed,” said Howe. “We said our bit on the touchline and there was certainly nothing in it.

“Paul is a manager I have always respected and got on well with so there were certainly no problems.”

And asked by a reporter if Dickov had tried to head-butt him, Howe replied: “If he'd tried to head-butt me, I would be on the floor now!”

Former Manchester City and Scotland striker Dickov, 40, said: “I don't like other teams' benches jumping out and trying to get my players sent off so I told him, politely.

“They were shouting it had been two-footed, it was one-footed and he didn't touch him. The player went down as if he had his leg broken and, two minutes later, he (Arter) was jogging up the touchline laughing.”

When asked by the Daily Echo, Arter politely declined to respond to Dickov's claims.

Meanwhile, Cherries manager Howe hinted at a quiet transfer deadline day, although he stopped short of ruling out any late deals.

Howe, who last week snapped up club record signing Tokelo Rantie, appears unlikely to further bolster his squad ahead of the cut-off at 11pm tonight.

But he revealed he could be open to the prospect of allowing some of Cherries' players to get valuable game time through loan spells.

Howe said: “I wouldn't expect any movement but then I wouldn't like to categorically say no and then have something come up and think 'Yes, we could do with that'. Let's wait and see.

“If we had interest in players we felt could benefit from a loan spell, we would look at it. But I am certainly in no rush to trim anyone from the squad.”