O'Kane targets home run

Bournemouth's Eunan O'Kane is targeting six points from back-to-back home games as the Cherries look to continue their rise up League One.

Eddie Howe's men are yet to taste defeat in the seven games since the club hero returned from Burnley, and with Oldham and then Stevenage making the journey to the south coast, O'Kane, a summer signing from Torquay, knows it is a great chance to close the five-point gap between themselves and the play-off places. "We've almost given the teams ahead of us a head start and Stevenage are one of those teams," he said. "That is going to be a big game but in every game we play now we need to look to win if our goal is to get promoted - which it is. Hopefully we can pick up six points from those games and continue to climb." The midfielder, 22, hopes to have caught Howe's eye when he played 90 minutes in a 1-1 reserve draw with Exeter on Tuesday on the back of an impressive cameo against Dagenham in the FA Cup. He said: "Not a lot of us have worked with him before so every opportunity, from the training pitch on a Monday morning to Exeter on a Tuesday afternoon, is vital. You have to give a good impression because that is all he has to go on. We've won six out of seven and drawn the other so you haven't got many grounds when it comes to asking why you aren't playing. "It was something the manager made clear to us, that some people will have to go because he doesn't want as big a squad as he does. You've got to prove to him that you are worthy for a place at Bournemouth Football Club."