Connell - We looked like a Bournemouth team

Jake Adams gave the Cherries the lead in the first half of the friendly at Canford Arena, the home side the better team in the opening period.

The tide turned in the second half, however, and the Cottagers levelled, but Bournemouth stood their ground to stay in the contest and earn their draw.

After the match, manager Connell spoke to afcb.co.uk and gave his feedback on the display against the category one opponents.

"We were excellent in the first half," he said. "We did the things that we worked on the day before the game and, as I've said increasingly in recent weeks, we looked like a Bournemouth team.

"We had forward runners, we created chances and we were on the front foot out of possession as well, we limited them to no real chances.

"I'm delighted with that and for Jake scoring a great strike, we could have had one or two more. With the way we'd planned our substitutions there were under-16s involved, we were getting minutes into players who haven't played loads recently.

"In the second half there's no doubt we dipped off. We took two of our older lads off, so that drop was maybe a natural thing. Fulham have quality and they showed that and we were indebted to Billy Terrell for a couple of good saves as well as some good defending around our box.

"We still had our moments, Marcus Daws, who I thought was excellent, had a decent strike at goal, but in the second half we just didn't carry on our good work from the first half.

"The challenge we set was whether we do it again after the changes we'd made. We didn't quite do that but it was still a respectable performance against high-quality opposition.

"When we came under that pressure in the second half the pleasing thing was that we stood up to that and Billy made those good saves.

"That's another step in the right direction for him because he's had a dip mid-season but has come back strongly recently.

"Football isn't always about the free-flowing attacking play that we showed in the first half, sometimes it's when you're standing up under pressure, making sure you're hard to beat and we were in the second half, while also carrying a threat on the counter.

"It was a strong performance, the difference in academy terms is seen in that the under-16s striker that we've just signed was released by Fulham. Daniel was very good in the first half, which shows the quality of Fulham's academy.

"Overall a draw was probably a fair result, we always have good and challenging games against Fulham and this match was no different."

Connell spoke about left-back Archie Harris, who put in an assured performance as he continues to get used to played with the older age group.

"Archie's played a lot of games for us in the second half of the season and as an under-16 at times he's found the level tough, but he'll be better for that in the long term," he said.

"Against Fulham he put in a mature display and he can be happy with his performance in the game."