Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe spoke to BBC Radio Solent and the Daily Echo ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, Howe hoping for a better defensive performance than the Cherries produced in their 3-3 draw at Notts County in midweek:
"We need to defend better than we did on Tuesday. Carlisle are a good football team and are well coached by Greg Abbott and his staff. They've played that way for two or three years now. It is always a difficult game, especially away from home with the travelling involved but one that should be an exciting game.
“Our lads are confident and hopefully we can get the first goal and that will make a big difference. I have watched Carlisle a couple of times this season and they are a decent team. I think Greg has always had the same philosophy and he sets up his teams in a good way, so it will be a tough test for us. Greg has done a really good job there down the years and he has made them very competitive.
“The balance of the side is so important. The beauty of Josh McQuoid is he can play any of the attacking roles – wide or up front. Donal McDermott can play in the number 10 role and out wide, and I see Marc Pugh as an out-and-out left player. We do have options within that to get them all in the side but there may be certain games where you might want something different.
“Flying up definitely helps in terms of preparation. Going back a few years, we never had the luxury of doing that. Hopefully, that will make a big difference in terms of how the players feel come tomorrow. Notts County was a long trip there and back on Tuesday night and that was a difficult one. For them to follow that up with Carlisle, I think taking the plane up is definitely the right decision.”
Meanwhile former Cherries assistant manager Steve Fletcher told his club's official website:
“We just have to go there with the mental attitude of 'we are three undefeated'. We have won two and drawn one - we have shown great character in coming back in both our last games. We won against Tranmere and we drew at Notts County, so we have to go to Carlisle full of confidence. We have turned the corner as a group I believe - Eddie and Jason (Tindall) have instilled a bit of belief into us.
“We have shown we are capable of being a very good side. We have passion and determination, as well as a lot of individual and collective quality. But we need to make sure we maintain that high level of performance throughout the whole 90 minutes – there are still things to work on. We have to play with tempo. When we play with a higher tempo and we push teams back, we are a force.”