It’s a big performance and a fantastic win
It was Burnley’s day at Crystal Palace yesterday when a 2-0 win left Sam Allardyce, who lost a Premier League game against us for the first time, bemoaning his team’s misfortunes on the day.
He certainly wasn’t happy with his team’s first half performance and said after the game: “We were bad in the first half but we weren’t in the second because we were camped in the Burnley half for all of it until we gave a very silly second goal away, but we couldn’t find a way through.
“You have to give them plenty of credit for defending like we have recently at Chelsea and Liverpool. It was very difficult when they got a goal in front and they could go deep into their penalty area and put lots of bodies in there, and it’s hard to break that down. Teams who are better than us have found that out, but the disappointing thing for me was the two goals we gave away and how easily we allowed them to score.
“In the first half we weren’t happy at all and we were nervous because we lost that first goal. We played better in the second half, but instead of seeing it right until the end and possibly coming away with a point, we gave a silly goal away which is sad for us.”
More than once we’ve been on the wrong end of bad refereeing decisions against Allardyce teams with Blackburn in 2010 and West Ham just two years ago still fresh in the mind. He said nothing then, of course, but he said yesterday: “The turning point was when Wilf (Zaha) went through and he’s onside, not just a few inches but a yard, and the assistant referee put his flag up before the goalkeeper upended Wilf and then they’re down to ten men, but I can’t control that.
“We could have had a penalty with Wilf in the box but I’m not sure if the referee would give anything today, he wouldn’t have given that outside the box, let alone inside. Flanagan took Wilf’s heel from behind and didn’t make any contact with the ball, so for me it’s 100% a penalty.”
He concluded: “We’ve had a big week and we’ve got three points so it’s not a bad total on the basis of who we’ve played – Liverpool away, Tottenham at home and Burnley. We could have lost all three so it’s a positive week in the three points that we’ve taken.
“We took three points off Liverpool which no one expected, and gave everything against Tottenham but ran out of legs but we couldn’t get there today. I can’t give any of the players any stick for what they’ve achieved recently, they had a difficult day today and we just have to recover and pick up some points over the next three games.”
Sean Dyche strode over towards the Burnley fans at the final whistle after finally getting the first away win of the season. “It’s a big win for many reasons,” he said afterwards.
“It’s a reward for some hard work on the road and the fans have been amazing again today. They have seen us get close and there have been a couple of games when we were scratching our head as to how we haven’t got a victory.
“So to come here with that hanging over you and deliver that performance was terrific. I made a couple of changes today, two enforced and two not, but I thought to a man the lads were fantastic and that was for the fans.
“When you think we haven’t had that win all season and they have just stuck at it and stayed with us week in and week out, so that one is undoubtedly for them, as well as us.”
He added: “We have to keep working hard because we’re not masters of the universe, but I did feel the win would come and the things I am really pleased about was the mentality of the players. I talked to them in the week about the will and desire to keep going despite what everyone was saying on the outside.
“I thought the focus and organisation was terrific. We grew and grew into the game with a strong tactical performance, some excellent individual performances and two very good goals. It’s never easy coming here and they were in a fantastic run of form, so when you put all that in the melting pot it’s a big performance and a fantastic win.”
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