GARRETH O'Connor's late leveller saw Cherries chalk up their 300th league point under boss Sean O'Driscoll at Stockport County on Tuesday (Feb 1).

The Irishman marked O'Driscoll's 250th competitive game in charge by grabbing a fine opportunist effort seven minutes from time at Edgeley Park.

Goals either side of the break from Chris Armstrong and Joe Dolan had cancelled out John Spicer's early opener before O'Connor popped up to net his sixth of the season.

O'Connor said: "I thought it was a fair result in the end.

"We started off well and went 1-0 up, but then we let them back into it, so to come away with a point is a good result because we didn't perform.

"We always knew it was going to be a hard game, but we're disappointed we didn't perform."

Discussing his goal, the Dubliner added: "I had a chance a couple of minutes earlier when I was nearly clean through, but it hit a bobble so I was a bit annoyed about that.

"I cut in from the left and had a couple of seconds to think about it and just put it in the far corner. It was good to score because maybe I should have scored on Saturday.

"Hopefully we're going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season and being 2-1 down with 10 minutes left, it was good to get a point. But we will have to start picking up a few away wins if we want to stay in the play-off positions."

Cherries boss O'Driscoll, appointed in August 2000, said: "I thought it was an awful game. It was awful to watch and awful to play in. It was difficult and I think the boys found it really frustrating. They tried to pass it and found it really difficult.

"We're a bit bemused because that's probably the worst we've played and yet we got a point out of it so I don't know where the logic is in that. I thought they showed great spirit after going 2-1 down and then I thought we raised it.

"We'll try to take the positives out of it. We were pleased with their attitude and although they are frustrated, they tried to do the right things and maybe it wasn't particularly the type of pitch or game to do it. Maybe we should have changed, I don't know. We'll look at it on the video and see what we can learn from it.

"At the end of the season, this might be two points dropped or it just might be a point gained, you never know."

The evening was marred when the Cherries supporters' coach was allegedly damaged during a protest held by County fans against the club's board of directors following the game.