Jason Puncheon has said that defeat to Manchester United yesterday was hard to take given the effort’s of the Palace team to try and take something from it having been a goal behind when he came on at the half time break.
Speaking to Crystal Palace FC following the game, the more controversial refereeing decisions in the game obviously figured in his thoughts.
‘It’s tough to take because the staff have told me that it wasn’t a penalty for them and I think we should have had a penalty for a foul on me after I came on in the second half, but those things happen in football.’
Puncheon went on to say that for the penalty against us, in his mind the ball hit Scott Dann on the shoulder, and that’s not handball so the decision was harsh.
‘It’s hard to take but those decisions go against you sometimes. We did really well in the second half and created some good chances. They’ve got a great goalkeeper at the top of his game and he pulled off some great saves and kept them in the game. That’s why he plays for one of the best teams in the world and is rated as one of the best.’
With the second half being more lively from us, once the leveller came, Punch admitted that being dropped to the bench did give him a touch extra motivation for the game.
‘I’m all for whatever the manager thinks, if he feels it’s the best thing for the team then I’m happy with that. Maybe it gave me a good response in the second half and I thought I did well when I came on. We’re professionals and I’ve got a duty to do when I step onto that pitch and I felt I did that. He told me to play my natural game and I tried to do that. It worked at times so I’m happy with that.’
With Palace now being on a run of four defeats with our last win coming against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light back at the beginning of March, Punch admits recently it has been disappointing but we shouldn’t let that take away from what has overall been a good season and of course whilst the defeats to West Brom and Hull were particularly disappointing, there’s a lot we can take from the performances against Chelsea and Manchester United.
‘It’s been a good season but the defeats to West Brom and Hull were disappointing but in the last two games we’ve got to take a lot of credit going up against two of the top teams in the country and I felt we did really well.’
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