Ratings and Reactions: Palace - Villa

[JoshVilla]

Over the moon with the 3 points. Puts a little more distance between us and that dreaded bottom 3, only 2 points behind Everton. It'd be nice if we could go on a bit of a run now, as we need to take as much as we can from these Christmas fixtures so we don't put ourselves under loads of pressure in the second half of the season (as we keep doing).

 

However, I really wish we would stop playing how we did in the second half. It was a combination of some good defending and a helping of luck (as well a poor final ball from Palace) that won us the game. Of course, the opposition will come at us and try and increase the pressure on us when they're a goal down, but we simply must start taking better care of the ball. It seems that, once we score, the nerves kick in and we can string more than 3 or 4 passes together. We put ourselves under so much pressure, and it just makes it look like we'll always struggle to score more than a single goal per game. 

 

Aside from that though, a very welcome and much needed win. Here's hoping we can do the same on Sunday and give ourselves a less nervy Christmas!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Josh - do you think a lot of that could be down to confidence? Having scored so few goals and even when we do, being pegged back every time, it must be a very difficult mental hurdle to overcome.

Of course, the way they're set up doesn't help with that huge gap between midfield and defence, but that is another point entirely. You're right to say they just don't look after the ball, the panic is all too plain to see.

Defensively we're performing very well. I say that without looking at the goals conceded column, it is based on my eyes alone, but they tend to concede due to the relentless pressure placed upon them rather than glaring unforced individual errors.

Need to sort that gap out Even if it's not Cole, play somebody there!

[Bottle Maker]

Not a great game to watch but we got three points..    I can not believe we had 54% of possession second half seemed like 10%  and they only had eight corners it seemed Palace were taking a corner every minute.   From being one half of the chuckle brothers to playing like a man possessed thought Clark was really good do not know what has happened to both Clark and Baker but they have improved immensely this season.

 

I hope Sunday is a good game with a big attendance. 

[David-Copenhagen]

The fact we've reached a point where we'll take any points we can after 14 games shows how poor we've been.

An awful performance and I can't think of many games we've won were we were worse.

Huge credit for the fight the team showed and how well we defended. But on the flipside to that i'd imagine that's what a league 1 club would do in cup game away from home.

Benteke is top class and with him in the team you will always have a chance of scoring.

Points move us up the table, performance makes me think it won't be too long before we drop down again.

First off - I don't care if we play well or bad as long as we win.

That said I find it hard to see people bashing the performance when we win. We have played really well, bar a few errors, most of the time in the 6 loss run. And what did we get from that? Did anyone here say that the performances looked good so points would come? It is a result game. Man U have played on other teams mistakes for years with succes

It is a results business, but results are usually "live for today".......performances are usually "live for tomorrow"......they are a barometer for where you are going as opposed to what you have done.

The more you can improve your performances the more likelihood of consistency which leads to improved results.

both are important.

I agree, but then I don't think a lot of people here share that after defeats :-)