NOW the hard work really begins for Eddie Howe. Having earned the manager’s post on a permanent basis, he now faces his toughest challenge – staving off relegation.

And with Cherries fighting for their Football League survival, it would take a brave man to back him to succeed.

A supporter since his childhood and a popular player during his time at Dean Court, Howe will doubtless have the overwhelming backing of the Bournemouth public.

Sentiment alone, however, is unlikely to save the day.

And after this latest setback had left Cherries 10 points adrift of safety, Rotherham manager Mark Robins was sceptical of Howe’s chances.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult,” said Robins, after victory had put daylight between the Millers and Cherries, both of whom suffered a 17-point penalty at the start of the season.

“They have got to win three or four games more than one of the teams above them. It’s going to be tough but we’ve got Grimsby next week so hopefully we can do Bournemouth a bit of a favour.

“You’ve got to feel for the three teams that started on minus points. It was always going to be a race between the three of us and I’m just grateful we got off to as good a start as we did because the longer it goes on, the more difficult it becomes.”

Cherries have certainly found the going tough this season with defeat at the Don Valley Stadium – where Mark Hudson’s goal did for them after 18 minutes – their fourth on the trot.

A dearth of fit strikers again forced Howe to line up with one up front, with one goal in four games a testament to their lack of threat.

And but for a final flurry, during which Mark Molesley was errant with their best chance, Cherries offered precious little going forward.

Their cause was hindered by the dismissal of midfielder Danny Hollands for two bookable offences midway through the second half, the second of which seemed harsh.

“We had some good chances late on,” said Howe. “We played better with 10 men and had a go in the last 30 minutes.

“I was disappointed with the first half. Rotherham put us under a lot of pressure with their set-pieces and we found it difficult to get out of our half.”

With new loan signings David Button, Rhoys Wiggins and Jake Thomson all handed debuts, Cherries made a fairly encouraging start, even though they failed to seriously trouble Millers goalkeeper David Stockdale.

But their early optimism evaporated once Hudson had drilled home an unstoppable volley to open the scoring after a clearance had fallen invitingly for him just outside the 18-yard box.

Cherries were fortunate to reach the interval only one goal in arrears after Micky Cummins had failed to capitalise on Button’s spill and Drewe Broughton had missed a sitter with the goal gaping.

Button soon atoned for his error when he pulled off a top-drawer save to keep out Nick Fenton’s bullet header from point-blank range on the stroke of half-time.

One enforced change – Joel Ward for hamstring injury victim Scott Guyett – and another for tactical reasons – striker Alan Connell for midfielder Joe Part-ington – saw Cherries start the second half with renewed vigour.

“We decided to change things to get a few men farther forward,” explained Howe. “We did a lot better in the second half but things just didn’t break for us at the end. Brett is our only striker who is 100 per cent fit. It’s a big ask for Alan to play 90 minutes at the moment and Jeff Goulding has a tight hamstring. Alan did well when he came on.”

Ward, who slotted in at centre-back, almost netted with his first touch, his header from Hol-lands’s 49th-minute corner snaffled by Stockdale at his near post.

But Cherries suffered a double blow on 63 minutes when Bradbury was injured following a tackle on Jamie Green before Hollands was dismissed for a foul on the same player.

Booked just two minutes earlier, Hollands was shown a second yellow card after the midfielder had collapsed in a heap – just seconds after Bradbury had been hurt trying to stop Green in his tracks.

Bradbury is expected to be sidelined for a minimum of two weeks with ankle ligament damage, while Hollands will sit out the visit of Wycombe on Saturday due to suspension.

While Rotherham boss Robins said he felt his side could have “won by five” and that the scoreline had “flattered” Cherries, the hosts could also have ended up sharing the points.

And although Button came to Cherries’ rescue when he saved smartly from Dale Tonge and Green clipped the crossbar, the clearest chance fell to Molesley who slide his shot agonisingly wide following Pitman’s cross.

Connell’s effort was correctly ruled out for offside before a shot from Jason Pearce was parried by Stockdale as Cherries’ attem-pts to salvage a point bit the dust.

“The lads are united,” said Howe. “They are hurting more than anyone. We spoke frankly after the game and know we need to get results quickly. You’re not going to get results if you’re a split camp so we’ve got to bring the lads together. Hopefully, we can turn the corner in terms of results.”