Saturday 1 October 2016 00:26, UK
Alan Pardew says that Crystal Palace were brave on their visit to Everton and "probably deserved to win" the game after coming from a goal down.
Christian Benteke's second-half header cancelled out Romelu Lukaku's opener to ensure the spoils were shared in the Friday Night Football match at Goodison Park. And Palace boss Pardew was delighted with how his team responded to a tricky start to the game.
"Everton had a couple of spells in the first half where you could see their quality. They took the lead and that's difficult here to come back from that," Pardew told Sky Sports.
"But we wouldn't lay down and second half - we just changed things a little bit at half-time - we got the impetus and I thought we really did well second half and probably deserved to win it as an away team."
Palace went behind when Lukaku curled an excellent free-kick over the wall and beyond a helpless Steve Mandanda. However, the goalkeeper was furious with his defenders after conceding, complaining that they should have jumped to attempt to block the shot.
"We're debating that - whether to jump and in what areas to jump," Pardew admitted. "The goalie wasn't happy - he thought we should have jumped and maybe we should have. We'll have a look at getting that detail right going forward.
"The sort of instruction is if it's close to stand tall because you don't want them to drill it under the wall. And of course, when it's a little bit further out because then for sure jump, because under the wall it's not going to go in. This one was somewhere in between."
Damien Delaney thought he had put Palace ahead on the hour mark, only to see the flag go up for offside after he headed past Maarten Stekelenburg. And while the Sky Sports pundits agreed with the decision, Pardew felt that his side had been a little hard-done-by.
"He (the assistant referee) thought Damian was offside," Pardew said. "I know you guys are indicating that you think it was Macca (James McArthur) who was the one who goes across the line of the ball, so I think we can feel a bit hard done by with that, because if that's what his call was he got it wrong.
"They make mistakes and we have to accept that. I thought our general play though probably deserved that goal."
But Benteke's powerful header ensured that Palace did get something out of the game and his all-round performance earned him the man of the match award.
"In terms of the specifics of his job, the out ball, the target, the making things happen and then the goal, it couldn't have gone better for us," Benteke's manager said. "I'd like us to get it more into his feet and that's something we need to work on."
The point puts Palace up into the top half of the table going into the upcoming international break, with 11 points from seven games - a haul that Pardew is very pleased with.
"I'm very pleased because the business we've done looks like it's going to pay dividends," the 55-year-old said. "The new players have made a big difference to our outlook, our confidence and to the way we can play. And that confidence is beginning to seep through."
