February 21 2011

Crystal Palace

New loan signing Kagisho Dikgacoi has paid tribute to the Crystal Palace supporters after his debut on Saturday, by Ed Aarons.

The South African international played a full match as The Eagles moved five points clear of the drop zone with a 1-0 win over Sheffield United.

And after only featuring for four minutes under Mark Hughes at Fulham this season, ‘KG’ admitted he was delighted to be back in action.

"It was a great day for me to make my debut and I was so pleased to play," he said. "I thought the team battled really hard and made it hard for Sheffield but we could have scored another goal.

"I was really excited before the match because it has been so long since I played in England and the supporters were really impressive – I was surprised a Championship club had so many fans."

Dikgacoi joined Fulham from South African club Golden Arrows in August 2009 and was a regular member of Roy Hodgson’s matchday squad before his departure to Liverpool. But he had grown increasingly frustrated since Hughes’ arrival and had been pressing for a loan move since the start of January.

When the call from Dougie Freedman came, he was only too happy to move across town.

"I had a chat with the manager before my first training session and he told me they had needed an experienced player like me in midfield all season," said KG.

"I don’t know that much about Palace apart from that Ian Wright used to play for them. But I know they have been in the Premier League before and they could still be a big team if we can avoid relegation this season."

As for his impressions of his new team-mates, Dikgacoi singled out fellow loanee James Vaughan.

"I was really impressed with him against Sheffield," he said. "(Wilfried) Zaha is a good player as well but so are most of the team.

"They all work very hard for each other and I’m looking forward to being a part of that. If we can play like we did on Saturday then we have a great chance of surviving."