Palace’s spirit is not yet on the wane

STOKE CITY CRYSTAL PALACE

WAYNE HENNESSEY believes Crystal Palace proved they are fighting despite defeat at the hands of one of his friends.

Joe Allen, Hennessey’s Wales team-mate, scored the only goal as Stoke’s victory left Palace deeper in the relegation mire.

But he claims Sam Allardyce’s side proved a point to their critics following last Saturday’s 4-0 hammering by relegation rivals Sunderland. “We let everybody down last week,” said Hennessey. “We let the fans down, ourselves, our families, everyone to do with Crystal Palace.

“Hopefully we’ve shown them in this game that we’ve still got a lot of fight in us. There’s a strong feeling we can get out of trouble and we will keep fighting to the end. He’s a great finisher, Joe – one of the best I know. His goal killed it for us.”

It left Allardyce with six defeats from eight Premier League games in charge. “The problem with losing confidence is players lose their ability to focus and make the right decisions,” said Allardyce.“That’s clearly something we will constantly work on and encourage them to make the right decisions in the game.”

The victory was Stoke’s first in four games after a week dominated by their row with West Brom over the leaking of new signing Saido Berahino’s failed drugs test.

With no FA Cup game next weekend, Mark Hughes’s side will now head for Dubai on Wednesday for a week of warm-weather training. Striker Peter Crouch said: “We will go into the break pleased and with a few more smiles on our faces.”

We feel we can get out of trouble

STOKE (4-2-3-1): Goal: Booked: NEXT UP: Booked: NEXT UP: CRYSTAL PALACE (4-1-4-1):