Hughes on where the game was lost against Tottenham

First-team

28 Dec 2025

Will Hughes said Crystal Palace have to take the positives from their performance after a narrow defeat to Spurs in our final fixture of 2025.

Despite having 15 attempts on goal, Palace were unable to beat Guglielmo Vicario in the Tottenham goal, with Archie Gray's header not long before half-time proving the only goal of the game.

Hughes was one of several players in red and blue who went close to finding the net, but ultimately the crucial goal eluded Palace.

When asked what was lacking, he answered: "I'd probably say being ruthless in front of goal. We had our chances throughout the game.

"But we just couldn't put the ball in the back of the net.

"I think the manner of the defeat, we can be proud of the performance as a whole, compared to the Leeds game last week where, as the manager said after, we deserved to lose.

"But ultimately performance alone doesn't get you the points and that's why we are frustrated tonight."

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we can be proud of the performance as a whole
—Will Hughes

Hughes said the performance also showed that a perceived lack of energy, or the amount of games the team have faced recently, was nothing to do with the final outcome.

"It's definitely lazy to say that," he added. "Because it's nothing to do with energy or fatigue.

"It's just we're going through one of those stages now, all teams will go through it, where they're creating chances and don't put the ball in the back of the net.

"Unfortunately, we're going through it at the moment.

We're creating the chances, that's the most important thing, the next thing is putting the ball in the back of the net, and results will change... we've seen that previously."

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