A “disappointed” Eddie Howe felt Bournemouth’s inability to pick up three points against Watford in many ways reflected the Cherries’ top-flight season to date.

The home side had a great chance to make it back-to-back home Premier League wins when they awarded a penalty in the closing stages after Etienne Capoue was adjudged to have felled Adam Smith in the area by referee Michael Oliver. However, Glenn Murray could not get the better of Heurelho Gomes from 12 yards to add to his first-half opener, which was cancelled out when a bad mistake from Artur Boruc allowed Odion Ighalo to equalise shortly before the break.

“We should have won today,” Howe said. “It’s another game where we feel we dropped points. It’s still very much a learning curve for us at this level and with eight games gone we are disappointed, we feel we should have had more points this season for the dominance we’ve had in games which is a good sign but obviously a concern at the way we’re dropping points.

“Today’s a frustrating day. When you look at the key moments in the game they’ve gone against us.”

In some respects, the game was a tale of the contrasting fortunes of the two goalkeepers, but Howe was philosophical about the error that caused Watford to equalise.

“It’s one of those things” the Bournemouth boss said of Boruc’s mistake. “We encourage our players and our goalkeeper to be brave and to take responsibility to play from the back, that’s very much our philosophy.

“There’s no blame attached to Artur. He’s been excellent since he’s been here. He’s made very few errors but unfortunately it’s the the life of a goalkeeper. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s just unfortunate today with the timing of the goal and how dominant we’ve been in the [first] half.”

Turning to Gomes and the superb save he made to keep out a spectacular effort from an unexpected source prior to the penalty, the Cherries boss said: “Those moments are key. Steven Cook’s overhead kick, if that had gone in that would have been talked about for years and years to come. It’s an incredible moment of skill for a centre half but an equally good save. I thought it was in from my angle and somehow he’s got a hand to it.

“And of course with the penalty, so late in the game you expect that to end up being a win for us but again he’s made another top-class save.”

Howe continued: “It’s the same as Artur. There’s no blame attached to Glenn. It’s one of those things. If you’re brave enough to take the penalty there’s a chance you could miss it.

“I think he’s been excellent today. He scored a very good goal, he’s been at the heartbeat of most of the good things about our team and worked incredibly hard. [There were] some very good signs for him and to score on your home debut and your first full start is a really good moment.”

To read the report from today's game, click here.