SAFC have ‘great players and boss’ – Pards
Sunderland have a “great manager and players” according Alan Pardew after seeing Crystal Palace steal a last-gasp victory.
The Palace boss looked set for a miserable afternoon at the Stadium of Light when Jermain Defoe scored his second goal of the day to put Sunderland 2-0 up on the hour.
But Joe Ledley’s deflected shot pulled a goal back within a minute before James McArthur levelled up matters in the 76th minute.
Christian Benteke then snatched the winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time to send Sunderland to the bottom of the Premier League.
“There is a team to work with there for David,” said Pardew, who completed a North-East double after winning 2-1 at Middlesbrough.
“They have a great manager and players – they just need wins.”
Pardew said he was always “confident” the Eagles would go on to win after seeing them pull a goal straight back after Defoe had netted his second.
“The second goal, that was probably Sunderland’s best little spell, that five, sixminute period. I think it’s offside, by the way,” he said.
“But I was standing on the sideline really scratching my head thinking, ‘how are we going to get this back?’.
“By the time I’d had any kind of thought process, we were 2-1 and then I really felt confident that we could get something out of the game at least.”
The win moved the Londoners up to seventh and Pardew said it was testament to chairman Steve Parrish for backing him in the summer with hard cash to change a side who had stumbled along in 2016.
Benteke cost Palace £27million with £13million laid out to Newcastle for Andros Townsend, who, while he failed to score, was a threat throughout.