April 7 2005

Aki Riihilahti

Crystal Palace midfielder Aki Riihilahti admitted his side were simply "too predictable" on Saturday, by Stuart Pink.

It capped a miserable week for the 28-year-old Finn. His national side conceded a late winner against the Czech Republic the previous Saturday, and the defeat by Boro left Palace second from bottom in the Premiership – the Eagles’ lowest position since October.

Riihilahti still remains upbeat, although he feels the way Palace tried to get back into the game was wrong.

He said: “I think after the first goal, we get a bit carried away at home and I think we were too predictable in the second half, we didn’t create, but we dominated the game.

“We maybe went a bit too long in the second half and forgot the movement and passing game we are good at.

“Sometimes when you are so hungry for the win and to get even through the game, you probably want to score so much that you go too quickly, but you should calm down and keep the ball.” The Palace players looked forlorn figures as they trudged down the tunnel at the end of the match, clearly frustrated to miss out on the chance of grabbing a vital three points from their fourth from last home game of the season.

With the Eagles only picking up one away win in the Premiership this season, the games at Selhurst Park have added importance in their bid to retain their Premiership status.

But Riihilahti is adamant the players will pick themselves up after Saturday’s defeat and remains confident the Eagles objective of finishing out of the bottom three can still be achieved.

Riihilahti said: “We went into the dressing room, we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves we are still committed but we haven’t lost anything, it’s still in our hands and I’ll take the performance, but I’ll probably add some flavour to it, some more creativity to it, we’ll be fine.

“But we have to start getting points that’s for sure and all our careers depend on it and we’ll play like that and I think today again we played to the last minute and showed the effort for that. Maybe we need that bit more quality and luck I think because we could have won this game.

“I know what our team stands for, I know what our management stands for and there won’t be any heads looking down on Monday I guarantee you that, it will be impossible in our club, so we’ll drive on.”

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