September 13 2004

Iain Dowie

IAIN DOWIE said Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Portsmouth was the worst Palace have played this year.

He said: "I've got no complaints. We weren't good enough. It was the worst we've played this year. We can talk about fate but we didn't play well.

"We didn't do the fundamentals well enough, didn't pass the ball well enough and got what we deserved.

"It was disappointing to fall behind after getting back in the game with a good set piece but conceded a goal which was going wide and then an own goal.

"Add to that our missed penalty but Andy Johnson has done well for us with penalties so you can't start labelling blame- I did think he was unlucky to have another effort disallowed for offside.

"I'm not going to become demoralised. It is now about learning from this and and about bravery. We need to brave enough, and show character now."