Manager Alan Pardew has given more thoughts following yesterday’s loss to Manchester City, and he remains bouyant about the year ahead.
Speaking to Crystal Palace FC with Pardew’s disappointment already well covered – albeit a tacit agreement City deserved their win – the gaffer focused more on our performance itself in this interview and he knows that if we play like that more often in the future we’ll be able to withstand a second half improvement they showed because we’ll already be a few goals clear.
‘It is hard to take but its football, they kept us at bay in the second-half and did a better job on us. I’m very proud of the performance we put in, when we beat them last year it wasn’t as good as this, it wasn’t as close as this. Sometimes the goals can mask the game. This one was really tight, first v second game – that’s what it looked like from the sidelines. It was a great performance from us and obviously at the end to suffer that type of goal means we are all really hurting.’
Pardew went on to say that he had to give credit to the fans at a old out Selhurst for the clash, because they more than contributed with a fantastic atmosphere across the 90 minutes.
‘I must give our fans a special mention, what an atmosphere we create here. You have to take your hat off to our fans, it was brilliant. We’ve got exciting players and they had their moments, the lads got the crowd going and our fans never disappoint.’
Looking at the start to the season more generally with nine from our opening games, Pardew knows that looks even better when you consider matches against Arsenal, Chelsea and now Manchester City because it has been a difficult run for us, and whilst a school of thought will say games should get easier with those three out the way for a bit, Pardew’s focus is on making sure we maintain those performance levels and keep that momentum going as nothing can be taken for granted at this level.
‘You’re talking about world-class players on the pitch for Man City so we’ve taken a step forward and we need to stay there, even though we’ve suffered the disappointment of that goal. But we’ll get over it and we’ll bounce back. We’ve had tough games at home. It’s not really the ideal start to make your place a fortress but it will become one. This team is going to win a lot of games here, I have no doubt about that.’
Vital Crystal Palace on:
Vital Crystal Palace on:
Share this article
