Cape Town – Goals from Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha struck for Crystal Palace in a physical 2-1 win over Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium On Saturday.
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Despite recent results, Alan Pardew was so relaxed before kick-off he took time out from his pre-match duties to watch the Manchester derby with journalists in the press room.
Zaha capitalised on a awful error by Boro full-back George Friend two minutes into the second half to clinch a deserved victory – just a third in 23 league games in 2016 for manager Alan Pardew – in front of a crowd of 30,551 at the Riverside Stadium. The chairman made that very, very clear, that he wasn’t going to sell him, and I think he meant it, as he proved, so it was important.
“You can’t control a whole Premier League game and we had to really hold on towards the end”.
“If we arrived today unbeaten, it’s because we played the first three games with an awesome intensity and today, especially in the first half, we didn’t play with that intensity”.
“If we don’t play with our intensity and style, which we didn’t in the first 45 minutes, it is the Premier League and we are going to pay”, Karanka told reporters after the game.
Stewart Downing and Ben Gibson both came close with long-range efforts as the hosts finished the stronger, but having claimed five points from their opening three games, this was something of a reality check for Aitor Karanka’s side. We certainly controlled large parts of the game and we had good opportunities to make good chances. We have some big players back at the ranch and hopefully we can get them fit.
“We have got the players, but as a team you need to work your socks off and try to win games”.
Daniel Ayala netted his first Premier League goal in his 15th appearance in the top-flight (5 games for Liverpool, 7 for Norwich and 3 for Middlesbrough). “He showed qualities, offensively and defensively”.
Christian Benteke scored his first Palace goal in the first match his younger brother Jonathan, who stood up and gave him a thumbs-up, was in the squad with him.
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An out-of-character lapse by George Friend on the restart presented Zaha with the chance to restore Palace’s lead and while Mandanda was by far the busier keeper in the second half, the visitors deserved their first away win of 2016.
