Eddie Howe bemoans throwing away two points as Sunderland peg back AFC Bournemouth

AFC Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe was left disappointed his Cherries side didn't make their first half dominance count against Sunderland.
AFC Bournemouth's Harry Arter dominated the centre of midfieldAFC Bournemouth's Harry Arter dominated the centre of midfield
AFC Bournemouth's Harry Arter dominated the centre of midfield

The visitors took a 13th minute lead at the Stadium of Light through new £10million signing Benik Afobe during a dominant opening spell that could easily have seen them go two or three goals up before half-time.

But they failed to capitalise, with Vito Mannone making up for his earlier error for Afobe's goal with some smart saves to keep the Black Cats in the game.

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Patrick van Aanholt then scored his second goal in successive Premier League games to level the scores on the stroke of half-time.

And while Sam Allardyce was happy with a point after seeing his side hold their nerve after going behind early on, his opposite number Howe was not.

Asked if it was two points dropped, he said: "After the first half, absolutely, yes.

"From watching, I felt we were in total control and doing everything we hoped to do, passing the ball very well.

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"The only disappointment really is we didn't create more chances in that spell and have the clinical aspect to our game where we go on and make it two or three, which I felt our dominance deserved.

"But at 1-0, there's always that window that you can have one lapse of concentration and it can cost you, and that's obviously eventually what happened.

"The disappointing thing from our perspective is the timing of the goal as well."

Howe was left sweating on news of midfielder Junior Stanislas after he suffered a serious-looking knee injury late in the game.

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Stanislas had been one of their brighter players, giving the Sunderland defence a torrid time in the opening 45 minutes especially.

Howe added: "He's got a twist to his knee. It doesn't look good, it looks like maybe a medial ligament strain.

"You saw him being carried off the pitch and it didn't look good and he's quite sore in the changing room, so we will see how serious it is."

Meanwhile, Howe revealed ex-Middlesbrough forward Lee Tomlin would be the subject of an internal disciplinary procedure after taking to social media to express his frustration at his lack of first-team opportunities.

He said: "We will be dealing with the matter internally.

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"Lee is obviously frustrated he is not featuring more regularly.

"It's not a huge issue for me, but you'd prefer him to keep his frustrations in-house and that's something we will be looking to deal with to make sure it doesn't happen again."