November 14 2010

George Burley

Crystal Palace manager George Burley praised Darren Ambrose and NEIL DANNS in the 2-0 win over Coventry.

Ambrose netted both goals - the first resulted from a free-kick after a City back pass was picked up by keeper Keiren Westwood and the other came from the penalty spot - while DANNS put in a typically assured performance.

"The Coventry player tried to kick it against our player and the ref had to make a decision, and we had to take advantage of that," said Burley. "For the penalty, it was a clear foul but whether it was in the box or not, I couldn't see.

"We need key players fit. Darren and NEIL have been fit for three games, since we played Middlesbrough, and we won the last two with them in the side.

"You can see they are mature players. You can get away with two or three youngsters but five or six and it's hard. It showed with our performance.

"There's nothing like winning games. We won on Tuesday with three terrific strikes but this was a terrific team performance. We knew Coventry would put high balls in the box but we defended them well. We deserved three points.

"We looked like a team. We weren't little boys, we competed and we have talent."

City boss Aidy Boothroyd said: "There is a ball bouncing and you hit it as hard as you can against him or go into a tackle. He hasn't got it in him to hit a backpass with his right foot from there.

"I have the hindsight of video. At the time I didn't think it was a backpass and I definitely didn't think it was a penalty.

"The contact was outside the area and Vaughan has gone to ground. He was the most surprised person in the ground when it was given a penalty.

"But rather than complaining we should look at ourselves, we let the decisions affect us and didn't respond in the right manner."