Patrick Vieira expressed his frustration that Crystal Palace didn’t take a point from West Ham United on Saturday evening, saying even that they should have won.
He suggested with a bit more “maturity” Palace could have secured a victory from the dramatic game which eventually saw the east Londoners win 2-3.
However the manager’s tone was optimistic on the whole, as he complimented his players’ attitude to fighting back.
Asked what he credits the never-say-die attitude on display towards the final whistle with, Vieira said: “It’s the character and the personality of the team in the dressing room. We may lack experience but what we have in the dressing room is players who really look like our fans, that means believing until the last minute.
“We managed to come back in the second-half, scoring those two goals, and we were really close to getting the points. But I think West Ham today will be really happy with the win.”
On two things that went against him, West Ham’s goals and a 46th-minute penalty decision, Vieira was honest but gracious in his response.
“It was good goals [scored by West Ham]. You have to give them credit because when they had their chances they took them. We had a couple we didn’t take and this is the reality of the game. We are learning in a really hard way and conceding those two goals straight away, with more maturity, more experience, we will manage the game in a different way.
“We will learn from this game and I think there is a lot of frustration because we were the better team and should at least get a point today.
“I think it [the penalty] is the referee’s decision and from where I was it was difficult to say if it was a penalty at first. Then I had the chance to see it after and I think it’s a penalty.”
Finally, Vieira gave a more general view on the 90 minutes, trying to explain how, despite their grip on the game, Palace lost.
He said: “It’s really difficult because I think tonight we played some good football and created a number of chances to win that game. [I’m] really disappointed because I think today we were the better team.
“But the difference between the two sides is they’ve been building the team for a couple of years now and this is a mature team, so the experience of this team allowed them to win the game today. At times we were a little bit naïve.
“We created the chances where we were unlucky, because we had the best first chances in the game where we hit the post. But we have to learn from those games, we have to improve, because playing well is not good enough to win football matches.”