October 30 2002

Trevor Francis

Trevor Francis thought Palace did not deserve to win and praised the perfromaces of Andrew Johnson and Alex Kolinko.

He said: "Walsall should have been out of sight by half time. I said to my players 'Walsall will be absolutely distraught being only one goal to the good'.

"I turned to my coach after 15 minutes and told him we had a mountain to climb as we looked all over the place.

"Probably, apart from the two players I have mentioned [Johnson and Kolinko], I don't think we deserved to win. We have had some good fortune and come out as winners.

"Our goalkeeper and centre forward were the big difference. They were outstanding.

"Winning gives you a nice feeling and we are scoring goals as well. We are scoring from all over the pitch and have had 10 different scorers this season.

"This means we are not dependent on the strikers, though they had a big say in the outcome of this match.

"But you have to give credit to my lads for the way they kept battling. Even at 3-3 we still kept looking for the winner and it was good to see Andy Johnson get another three goals."