Crystal Palace defender Chris Richards insists his side 'lost the game more than they won it' after Newcastle United's 2-0 victory at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Magpies' Second-Half Surge Decides the Match
Following an uninspiring first half, the Magpies lifted their game after the half-time break to roar into a two-goal lead in the opening 15 minutes. Matthias Jaissle's interval team-talk did the trick, with Newcastle looking like a different side in the second half, opening the scoring when Jacob Murphy's cross was turned home by William Osula.
Joe Willock then saw a superbly-taken effort ruled out for a narrow offside, but United had their second moments later when Amar Dedic cut the ball back for Harvey Barnes to sweep home. It was a blistering spell that Palace failed to cope with, and although they tested Lukas Hornicek with a couple of long-range efforts, Newcastle held firm to take an important three points back to Tyneside.
Richards: 'We Crumbled for 15 Minutes'
However, Palace's USA defender Richards felt it was his side's lack of ability to step up after the break that cost them, rather than anything Newcastle did.
“I think we lost the game more than they won it," he said. "We just crumbled for 15 minutes and that’s not something you can do in any league, but especially the Premier League."
“It’s very frustrating because I thought it was a good performance on Thursday and a good first-half to build on. Maybe it was a lack of competition in first balls, which leads to second balls. Everybody in the world knows that Newcastle are good on the counter-attack, in transition, and that’s exactly what they did. It just felt like that in those 15 minutes, everything went wrong."
“There’s no excuse for that lack of concentration for 15 minutes. We just have to do better and going forward and as tough as today was we have to learn from these kind of moments. As players on the pitch, we have to hold each other accountable and get each other out of this slump that we’re in. We know from the inside that we, as players, have to be doing better. We have to have these hard conversations with each other and hold each other accountable. We’re the only ones who can get us out of this."
Pressure Mounts on Palace Boss
The result increases the pressure on Palace boss Pierre Sage, who had seen his side lose 5-0 to Brighton a week ago, while they could only draw 2-2 with 10-man Besiktas in a midweek Europa League tie in Turkey.
“We left a lot of things in the dressing room and didn’t come back on the pitch with that, and when you give space, when you give all the aggression to the opponent, at the end you pay for that, and that was the case," admitted the Eagles head coach.
“I think it’s only mental because after the second goal conceded we started to play again and we pushed to come back without success. But during this first 15 minutes there was nothing in our play, nothing in our body language, things like this. We were not on the pitch, not on the play, and we paid for that."
