BOSS Gary O’Neil admitted Cherries’ performance against Crystal Palace was their worst during his time in charge.

The head coach, at the helm for his first home fixture since taking the job at a permanent basis, saw his side floored 2-0 by set-piece goals from Jordan Ayew and Eberiche Eze.

Asked to assess where his side’s display ranked, having initially taken the job on an interim basis back in August, O’Neil replied: “Bottom.

“That was the worst I’ve seen us.

“We were better against Southampton than we were today.”

He added: “I think it’s the first time since I’ve taken charge that we fell well below the standards that we’ve set. So very disappointed with nearly all aspects.

“Why it looked so flat, why there were so many errors with the ball.

“A lot of them have missed a lot of training with illnesses. We’ve had a couple coming back with injury who lacked rhythm.

“The squad is not in quite such a good place as it was before the break. We were in a rhythm, we had boys that were used to playing that were training every day.

“The past few weeks have been a bit messy in that aspect for us but no excuse for sure. My responsibility to make sure it looks much better than that next time we play.”

Cherries’ next test comes at Manchester United in the Premier League on Tuesday (8pm).