Cherries this afternoon missed out on the £80,000 EC Group Cup jackpot as FC Saarbrucken secured a deserved final success at Seward Stadium.

The German third tier outfit claimed the cash and silverware after goals from Markus Fuchs and Christian Eggert sealed a 2-0 victory.

Cherries, who had progressed to the final with a penalty shoot-out success over the Glenn Hoddle Academy yesterday, were second best for long periods of an uneventful clash.

Fuchs opened the scoring with a 15th-minute header after Steve Fletcher had missed a golden opportunity to put Cherries in front.

Goalkeeper Enver Marina brilliantly denied Danny Ings in the second half before Cherries substitute Marc Pugh fired a free-kick inches wide.

But the visitors had the final say when Eggert curled home a superb free-kick from 20 yards.

Cherries will receive £45,000 for finishing as runners-up in the pre-season competition.

Hoddle’s academy secured third place by beating Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0 earlier today.

Cherries: (4-4-2) Jalal; Purches, Barrett, Baudry, Cummings; Feeney (Stockley, 83), Robinson, Gregory, Choubani (Pugh, h-t); Fletcher (Taylor, 61), Ings. Unused subs: Strugnell, Forbes, Parsons, Flahavan (g/k).

FC Saarbrucken: (4-1-4-1) Marina; Forkel, Lerandy, Eggert, Gehring; Sieger (Kruse, 61); Kizmaz (Ziemet, 66), Stiefler, Sökler (Ozbek, 73), Laux (Wurtz, 80); Fuchs. Unused subs: Bach, Pazurek, Bohmann (g/k).

For reaction and more Cherries news, see tomorrow’s Daily Echo.