SHEFFIELD United boss Paul Heckingbottom admitted that “too many” of his players “dropped below our standards” in the Blades’ 3-1 defeat at home to Cherries.

It was far too easy for Cherries to pick up their first away win of the campaign, blitzing past Sheffield United courtesy of a Marcus Tavernier double and Justin Kluivert’s maiden Premier League goal.

Substitute Oli McBurnie restored some pride for the hosts with a header deep into stoppage time, but Heckingbottom was clearly not impressed with his side’s performance.

After the game, he commented: "We kept giving them the ball back. We need to be better.

"For us to get results we need virtually every player to be at their best and to have some big moments.

“(Against Cherries) we didn't, we had too many who dropped below our standards.

“We needed to start better and be more on the front foot to get control of the game."

Perhaps the Blades’ afternoon was summed up by Cherries’ second goal, goalkeeper Wes Foderingham drifting out of his box with the ball at his feet, only to be dispossessed and punished by Kluivert.

"If we give goals away like that we're not going to win games in this league, we know that,” continued the former Leeds United and Barnsley boss.

"We started poorly from our point of view and it put us on the back foot and we never really recovered.

“We gave the second goal away before we could make changes at half-time and the nature of the third goal... we're not going to win.

"But we can't hide behind mistakes.

"We know we need to play better than that, we've got to get it out of our heads before the next game because that's below the standards we've set for ourselves and which we've played to for the majority of this season.”