Pugh backs Bournemouth for strong finish to the season
REUTERS - Bournemouth will learn from their consecutive defeats to leaders Chelsea and second-placed Tottenham Hotspur and are confident of a strong end to their Premier League campaign, winger Marc Pugh has said.
Eddie Howe's Bournemouth, who are 16th in the league, have slipped among the relegation threatened sides after a 4-0 defeat at Spurs on Saturday extended their winless run to four games.
Pugh, however, is confident the team can return to winning ways when they host 19th-placed Middlesbrough on Saturday.
"Next week we've got Middlesbrough at home, that's a massive game and three points would boost our season," Pugh told the club website (www.afcb.co.uk).
"We'll work on what we did wrong and then try to rectify that to put in a solid free-flowing performance.
"We want to be playing in the Premier League next season so we need to turn up and be the better team against Middlesbrough."
Bournemouth's last five league fixtures are against opponents from the bottom-half of the table.
Pugh believes playing against the top sides has been a learning experience for his side.
"Against Liverpool we got a great point, we deserved it in the end with our work-rate," Pugh added.
"Against Chelsea and Tottenham we were up against the two best teams in the league who move the ball well and with the attacking threats that they've got that's where we want to get to."
Bournemouth, who are seven points off the drop zone, have picked up 35 points so far this campaign, seven short of their last season's tally.
(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)