February 8 2006

Iain Dowie

IAIN DOWIE gave his defenders a rocket after Palace suffered a late FA Cup exit.

Preston striker Danny Dichio cancelled out Darren Ward's first-half tap-in and then bagged the winner in the final moments of the fourth round replay.

DOWIE was furious with his defenders after they were caught out by crosses into the box.

He said: "I don't know what our defenders were doing for the winning goal. It was a good ball into the box but we could and should have dealt with it.

"People will say we can concentrate on the league, but at the moment that is no consolation and I'm very disappointed to be out of the FA Cup.

"We had enough of the ball to have won but we were not clinical enough with our final pass."

DOWIE's anger didn't end there as he also admitted the size of the crowd was a disappointment.

He said: "It was a very low crowd and that is a shame.

"I know there have been a lot of games recently, but 7,356 is still surprising for an FA Cup tie."