August 8 2010

George Burley

George Burley was thrilled to get the season off to a winning start as Crystal Palace saw off Leicester 3-2.

Wilfried Zaha, Darren Ambrose and Alan Lee put Palace 3-0 up, but goals from Andy King and DJ Campbell saw the Eagles nervously hang on for maximum points.

Burley said: "It was a cracking game. We knew Leicester are a top side and the first half was magnificent, but I also knew at half-time that it was not over.

"Wilfried Zaha is a cracking prospect and we will give him the opportunity to keep on developing and he will be a big talent.

"We have some good youngsters here and some good professionals as well, so the atmosphere around the club has been great since I came in.

"The new owners have offered us stability. It was a tough time last season with administration. We have a tight budget but that is the way to run a Championship club you don't want to have the same situation as before.

"The owners want to do things right and hopefully we can keep moving along in the right direction and bring in one or two players."

"It was great to be back. It was an honour to be a national manager but you miss the day-to-day work with the players," he added.

"The Championship is a tough league but I know it well and it is great to be back and working with some great players."

Leicester manager Paulo Sousa said: "I think we started well but conceded two silly goals. What I saw in the second half was a team with more anger to turn the situation around. I think we became a better team and created more chances.

"In the second half, the pressure was going pretty much one way and we stopped their counter-attacks, but unfortunately we did not make the best decisions in the first half."