Pardew rues ‘fine margins’ after Palace defeat

Matthew Stead
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Alan Pardew blamed Crystal Palace’s 1-0 defeat to Tottenham on ‘fine margins’, with the manager vowing to ‘put things right’ at Selhurst Park.

Son Heung-min scored the only goal of the game at White Hart Lane in the 68th minute, but Palace came within an inch of opening the scoring themselves just moments earlier.

Bakary Sako’s vicious strike from the right-hand side was expertly saved by Hugo Lloris, and from the resulting counter-attack, Christian Eriksen slipped the ball into South Korean Son whose finish eluded keeper Alex McCarthy.

Pardew rued the ‘fine margins’ which saw his side succumb to defeat in such a manner.

“I think the game hinged on those three minutes,” the Palace boss began. “Hugo Lloris made an unbelievable save and three minutes later they got the goal which our goalkeeper should have stopped.

“The margins were very tight but they were not in our favour throughout the game and we should have done better.

“If you want to finish high up in the Premier League you have to refine those margins and make sure they’re in your favour.

“We have to react. That’s two defeats. They were against Manchester City and Tottenham but I don’t care about the opposition. It’s two defeats and we have to put that right.”