CHERRIES attacker Jaidon Anthony admitted Saturday’s clash with high-flying Newcastle United is “never going to be easy” with the two sides’ contrasting form.

Eddie Howe returns to the Vitality Stadium having lead Newcastle to the top four and the League Cup final, whilst Cherries’ recent run of eight games without a win seeing them drop into the relegation zone.

Anthony scored Cherries’ only Premier League goal since the World Cup break against Nottingham Forest, the only point they have mustered since November.

Previewing the fixture with the Daily Echo, Anthony shared: “You have seen every game in this league is tough.

“On the run we’re on, you can see that it’s never going to be easy.

“They’re having an amazing season and we’ll have a good week to prepare and then we’ll come ready and hopefully get a result out of that one.”

A late Kaoru Mitoma goal saw Cherries come away from their last game without any points, Brighton narrowly winning 1-0.

Anthony maintained that the side remained confident in their approach, sharing: “We know what we came to do and as a team we want to stick to the gameplan and that will hopefully get us points on the board.

“I think we did that (against Brighton) and it’s disappointing in the way we conceded and so late on, but we’ve got to dust ourselves down and go again really.

Cherries drafted in three new attackers during the January window, with two of the arrivals, Antoine Semenyo and Hamed Traore, capable of playing in Anthony’s primary position on the left wing.

Asked about the increased competition in the side, the winger restarted: “We also had some top players in my position always.

“I think in every club you need a lot of options and obviously we’ve had some players leave in my sort of position as well.

“I’m always going to fight for my position. I think that will never change.

“It’s not really something I can control. The manager has got to pick his best 11 for the team and hopefully I’m in it.

“If I’m not, I’ll try and help in any way I can really.”

The 23-year-old then commented how he hoped the reinforcements could help Cherries turn their season around.

“We hope so,” he added.

“We need to get some results and we can see they’ve got some real quality and they add to our squad and our depth.

“Obviously we’ve had a lot of injuries as well, so we’ll have some players coming back. Hopefully they can help us and we can get some points on the board.”