April 9 2007

Mark Hudson

Peter Taylor was fuming at his Crystal Palace stars after they ignored his warnings about Stoke's match-winners.

Taylor blamed Palace's 2-1 defeat at Stoke on his side's failure to heed advice on how to cope with strikers Ricardo Fuller and Jon Parkin.

The Eagles matched Stoke for long periods but were let down by a lack of attention to Fuller and Parkin, who both got on the scoresheet.

"Before the game I told my players about the threats of Fuller and Parkin and they both scored in ways that they shouldn't have been allowed to," Taylor said.

"I can't ask for any more effort. Then, to all of a sudden be two goals down just shows you what this division is all about. There are good strikers around who can hurt you.

"There were two big teams out there and you had to work bloody hard to win a header in the opponents' area. But they were good goals for Stoke and eventually won them the game."

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