Tommy Elphick challenges Bournemouth teammates to "step up"

Bournemouth captain Tommy Elphick has challenged his teammates to "step up to the plate" after their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday.

The Cherries largely dominated proceedings at Dean Court but were undone by Ayoze Perez's first-half effort, and Elphick wants to see an injury-hit squad improve in front of goal.

"Someone needs to step up to the plate," Elphick told BT Sport. "The goalkeeper Rob Elliot and the [Newcastle] defenders played well today, but we need to score more.

"We haven't taken our chances today and we haven't scored as many as we would like and we're an attacking team, so that has to change."

However, the defender has rejected claims that Eddie Howe's side need to alter their attacking mentality if they want to survive in their maiden Premier League campaign.

He added: "You've got to give yourself a platform to build on and a clean sheet would do that in the next game. We can't get too down because we've played well. People want us to change our style, but it's rubbish. This is us and this is how we play."

The home reverse to Steve McClaren's side drops Bournemouth into the Premier League drop zone.