West Ham boss Sam Allardyce fumes at set-piece Crystal Palace goals

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was left fuming with his team after going down 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace.

Allardyce said he had prepared his team for Palace’s set-piece barrage all week, but all three goals came straight off the training ground.

A combination of Glenn Murray and the unfortunate Aaron Creswell were responsible for the first, from Jason Puncheon’s corner.

Scott Dann then powered home a header from another Puncheon corner, and the game was then over as a contest when 12 minutes later, Murray - who was only starting up front due to injuries to Fraizer Campbell, Marouane Chamakh and Yaya Sanogo - got a glancing header to Puncheon's free kick from the left-hand corner of the box.

Murray was later sent off for a second yellow, and Allardyce felt the Palace striker had been lucky to remain on the pitch for as long as he did. He also lambasted Mile Jedinak for a late elbow to Diafra Sakho, but was more critical of his own side's display.

"We spent a long time looking at Palace's set-plays and 50 per cent of their goals this season came from them," he said.

"So you know how dangerous they are, they put a good ball in and have five or six big players that attack the ball. But we were setting out our plan to compete with that.

"Even though Palace were better than us on the day we lost on that tactic alone and that is really disappointing.

"You concede one then you give Palace credit. When you concede one that is our fault. That is something we should have done better on."