Andros Townsend has urged his Crystal Palace team-mates to rediscover their finishing touch after they wasted 31 shots on goal throughout their 0-0 draw with Cardiff.
What could have been their third successive Premier League victory, on the back of last week’s stunning 3-2 win at Manchester City, instead ended in frustration as they struggled to score at Selhurst Park.
Townsend hit the crossbar from a fine chance in only the second minute, and he told his club’s official website: “It was very frustrating, we created a lot of chances as the stats show. But we couldn’t put one away.
“If we want to start climbing the table, we have to be more clinical like we were last week. I’m sorry we weren’t and that we didn’t get the three points we deserved.
“The amount of chances we were creating, we knew until the last minute that we were going to get another one, and another one and we did but, unfortunately, not one went in. Luka (Milivojevic) hit the post, I hit the bar and probably should have done better.
“Connor (Wickham) had a couple, Wilf (Zaha) had a couple. It’s just one of those days where we have to dust ourselves down and move on.
“In the past, we’ve had problems with following up good performances with other good performances but the performance was there, we weren’t complacent, we knew it was going to be just as difficult as the City game and it turned out to be that way.”
Connor Wickham, who made only his second appearance of the campaign as a substitute following two seasons disrupted by injury, added: “We had 31 shots, which is pretty incredible considering we didn’t score. But the positives are that we’re getting the chances and getting into the right positions.
“We’ll become more clinical hopefully and then we’ll start climbing up the table and getting away from where we shouldn’t be anyway.”
Cardiff’s manager Neil Warnock, who twice managed Palace, insisted it was team spirit that inspired his side’s resilience under such intense pressure.
“When you’ve got fans like that and a club supporting you, you’ve always got a chance,” he said. “Our dressing room is our strength. We play a lot more than what people give us credit for and we’ve got some steel about us.
“I’m really pleased for the fans because they were fabulous again and to keep that volume up was unbelievable, so all credit to them.”
