Bournemouth boss Howe urges Cherries to pick off Swansea

Matt Stead

Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe has told his side to focus as they look to secure their Premier League status with victory over struggling Swansea.

The Cherries are within touching distance of safety on 38 points but have not won since beating bottom club West Brom on March 17.

Howe’s troops have lost their previous three matches following a 2-1 defeat at south-coast rivals Southampton.

Swansea, currently 17th on 33 points, are fighting for their own top-flight survival but Howe has called on the Cherries to pick them off.

“Nothing will sway me from my mentality to be the best I can every day,” said Howe. “But for the players it is very difficult.

“I think we have just come off mentally, not technically, not tactically, we have just come off mentally where we need to be.

“The biggest challenge now and the difficulty is to try to find that again.

“I am urging my players to forget everything that has happened, just go out and play at their absolute maximum levels.”

The Cherries boss added: “There can be no greater incentive than that (staying up). Coming into the season, our first priority was to get Premier League safety and we still have not achieved that.

“Win and we are safe, it is in our hands. We know what we can do, that we can control that.”

Howe believes the squad owe the Bournemouth fans a memorable send off in their last home match of the season.

“My aim was to improve on last year to grow the team again, hit new levels of standards and performance,” Howe said in a press conference broadcast on the club’s official website.

“This last part of the season has been hugely frustrating for me because I know we are capable of so much better.

“But it is what it is, we are in the position we are in, and we need to make sure we leave this season at home on a real high.”

Despite an upturn in fortunes since Carlos Carvalhal took charge in late December, Swansea find themselves now just a point clear of the bottom three following their own six-match winless run.

Howe praised the “unbelievable job” of the Portuguese coach to get the Welsh club in with a chance of staying up, but warned against complacency from his side.

“We know they are going to be very dangerous opponents,” the Bournemouth manager added.