CANDID Josh Gowling admits the statistics make for grim reading but is hoping Cherries may have finally turned a corner in their battle to avoid the drop.

The cultured defender was keen to focus on the positives after Saturday's 1-1 draw with Walsall had seen Cherries write an unwanted chapter in the club's history.

Kevin Bond's class of 2007 has mustered just two draws from their opening seven home league games - the worst return since Cherries joined the Football League in 1923.

But despite playing his part in the ignominious run, Gowling is convinced Cherries can take great heart from the latest entry to the winless sequence.

Highly critical following Cherries' defeat at Millwall nine days ago, Gowling told the Daily Echo last night: "I thought we were a lot better against Walsall. It might not have been the prettiest of football, but we stuck together and felt more like a team.

"We performed much better as a group and were together. I know we dropped a couple of points, but the lads felt a lot better and were on a high compared with the previous week because it was a vastly improved performance.

"Everybody is disappointed that we haven't won a league game at home this season and nobody wants to be part of those statistics. Personally, I haven't been enjoying my football at all. We are bottom of the league and have been putting in some poor performances.

"It hasn't been good enough and when you hear that we have made the worst home start to a season in the club's history, it isn't difficult to see why. But we've got to get ourselves out of it and I'm confident we will. Hopefully, this should be the start of good things to come."

Cherries were on course to break their duck after Jo Kuffour had given them a 20th-minute lead, only for Darren Wrack to dash their victory hopes with an 81st-minute equaliser.

Boss Bond said: "It is important that we take the positives from it because if we perform like that continuously then we'll certainly win more games than we will lose.

"I thought we caused them problems throughout the game and tried desperately hard to come back at them after they had levelled. But you could see it just wasn't going to be our day.

"They posed us very few problems in the first half and we got our noses in front after we'd had the lion's share of the play. But I always felt that one goal possibly wouldn't be enough and that's how it turned out. I was pleased with everything, apart from the result."

Bond also expressed his delight as an attendance of more than 5,400 was much higher than the club had anticipated, particularly with Cherries languishing at the foot of the table.

"I was really pleased," he said. "It's been a difficult week for the club so I was pleased that they turned up for the players and it says a lot about the public of Bournemouth. When it's difficult times, you need them to back you and they did that with the players and I was chuffed with that."

  • Cherries face a long trek to either Barrow or Farsley Celtic in the first round of the FA Cup next month. Leeds-based Celtic, who won promotion to the Blue Square Premier last season, were held to a 1-1 home draw by Barrow on Saturday.

Barrow, which is situated in Cumbria, are currently 19th in Blue Square North and host Celtic in the replay at Holker Street tomorrow.