ALAN Connell said it had been a “challenging few days” as he reflected on yesterday’s 3-2 defeat to Millwall.

The development squad cruised to a 4-0 win over Charlton Athletic at the weekend, but it came at a cost with Ben Winterburn, Finn Tonks and Max Kinsey all forced off injured during the contest.

The trio, as well as potential departee Daniel Adu-Adjei, were unavailable for the loss to the Lions, where a number of Cherries’ under-18s featured.

“It was a challenging game, which we knew it would be against Millwall,” Connell told the Daily Echo.

“They’ve got a lot of quality.

“It’s been a challenging few days, after the injuries we had and a couple of players missing for other reasons.

“In the game, there were some difficult moments for us, some really good moments, but I thought overall it was performance full of commitment and passion, with moments of quality.

“We probably needed to produce a little bit more quality in key areas at certain times, but we just came out on the wrong end of the result.

“But momentum wise and performance wise, I think it was a continuation of the work we’ve done. But it wasn’t quite to be.”

He added: “It’s disappointing to lose. The culture we’ve got is that all of us want to improve every day and develop to be better versions of ourselves.

“Along the way, we want the players to learn, we want to compete and we want to try and win whilst we’re developing.

“It was a really good day for the players to learn and reflect on.

“We’ve been quite settled this year with the team and squad we’ve had.

“These last few days, everything seemed to happen at once.

“Obviously there’s the transfer window, there’s players with the first team, injuries we’ve picked up on Saturday in particular against Charlton. It’s just been a challenging few days.

“From the Charlton game for example, four of our starters weren’t in the squad (to play Millwall), for different reasons.

“We’ve got a few injuries in there and we’re going to need to get that sorted as soon as possible and try and get them back on the pitch.”

Connell’s side return to action at New Cuthbury against Norwich City on Saturday (12pm).