Neil Lennon praises Bournemouth after thrashing Bolton Wanderers

Bolton Wanderers manager Neil Lennon has admitted that his team were outplayed after they were beaten 3-0 by Bournemouth.

Marc Pugh and Matt Ritchie gave the Cherries a 2-0 half-time lead, while Callum Wilson added a third after Bolton's Dorian Dervite was shown a red card, in a result which effectively confirms their promotion to the Premier League.

After the match Lennon revealed that he sees the South Coast club as a role model.

"We were beaten by a better team," he told the club's official website. "They are the benchmark for where we want to be in a year or two. It seems like we're a long way off that at the minute, but we are missing some key players and we'll have a lot of work to do in the summer in terms of the type of player we want to bring in.

"We were second best tonight for much of the game, although I thought Emile Heskey and Adam Bogdan were fantastic. I think we can perhaps look at this game in isolation, when you look at the teams we've played in and around the top four in the league.

"We've ran Middlesbrough, Norwich and Watford close in recent months, but tonight everything fell for Bournemouth."

Bolton sit 18th in the Championship table.