CRYSTAL Palace boss Tony Pulis was pleased with his side's performance despite losing 3-2 to Brentford in pre-season.
Goals from Glenn Murray and Marouane Chamakh gave the Palace fans something to cheer about as the manager was quick to point out the positives of a lacklustre performance by the Eagles against the newly promoted Championship side.
"We've just come off the plane 48 hours ago we needed a good run out and we knew this would be a good run out. Brentford played really well," Pulis said.
"The game got stretched which again was good for us.
"It was end to end stuff and I thought our boys worked their socks off today. It was a good game for them, a really good game."
In a separate match kicking off at the same time, a strong Palace XI beat non-league Forest Green Rovers 3-0, with new signing Fraizer Campbell scoring a hat-trick on his debut.
Pulis spoke of his choice to not include Campbell or fellow new boy Brede Hangeland - who also played at Forest Green - in the trip to West London.
He said: "We didn't want Fraizer or Brede to play here today because they've played no football and we thought this would be a tough game for them so by going up there and playing Forest Green it's given them [confidence] and obviously Fraizer scoring a hat-trick it helps."
Two weeks today, Palace travel to the Emirates to take on Arsenal in the opening game of the season and the Eagles' manager hinted that he hadn't finished spending in the transfer window.
"We'll see over the next few weeks. We've got a month. The window doesn't close till the end of the month when the season starts so we've still got plenty of time," Pulis said.
"One thing's for sure I won't be signing 14 players like I did last year on the last day of the season or the last day of the window."
One noticeable absentee from both of today's squads was midfielder Jonny Williams, who suffered an injury against Columbus Crew during the American tour last week.
Pulis said: "He's got a thigh strain, he's the only one we're struggling with at the moment but that should be ok, We're hoping in the next couple of days that will be fine."
by Dan Gibbs
