CRYSTAL Palace star Scott Dann was pleased with the defensive performance from himself and his Eagles team-mates at Manchester United on Saturday and felt his side stood up to the test well.
Old Trafford has been a difficult place for sides to go to for the past two or three decades, and Palace certainly didn't embarrass themselves despite losing narrowly to Juan Mata's strike midway through the second half.
Dann, completing his second game back since an injury which kept him out for four weeks, believes there are positives to take moving forward after frustrating the Red Devils.
"When you go to Old Trafford, United are going to have the majority of possession and I thought up until the goal they didn't have too many chances," the centre-back told the Advertiser.
"Obviously we're disappointed Mata's shot went in and they had all the ball but there wasn't too much in the game and at times we looked threatening on the break.
"We got back to being solid and resolute. That was good to see and maybe we just didn't have that cutting edge further up the pitch."
As well as defending very well, Palace had opportunities to silence the home crowd, especially in the first half through Fraizer Campbell.
And Dann felt the Eagles defended for their lives against a United team who enjoyed more than 70 per cent of the possession throughout.
"Up until their goal, we had the best chance of the game where Fraizer has gone through one-on-one – on another day he would have probably put it in the back of the net," he said.
"It wasn't to be but I don't think they had many chances on goal before and Julian wasn't tested. But they possess that quality and Mata has produced that half a yard on the edge of the box.
"Maybe someone could have got out to shut him down but on the whole it was a good defensive performance.
"Even though United had a lot of the ball they didn't chances. That's the most disappointing thing, you defend so well as a team and have the best chance of the game and still come away with a defeat.
"It goes like that sometimes. We stuck to the game plan and we had a good shape. We wanted to get into the holes they left at the back and we would have liked to have done that more.
"But you're always going to be under the cosh when you go to Old Trafford and you have to defend for your lives. I thought we did that."
By Mark Ritson (Twitter @MR_LWMedia)
