Alan Pardew: Crystal Palace showed their quality in draw with Everton

Pleased: Alan Pardew admitted he was happy with Crystal Palace's performance against Everton
LINDSEY PARNABY/AFP/Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj7 December 2015

Alan Pardew believes his Crystal Palace side showed their quality against Everton on Monday after the Eagles came close to beating the Toffees at Goodison Park.

Roberto Martinez's side were left stunned in the 76th minute when Palace defender Scott Dann headed in what looked to be the winning goal before Romelu Lukaku converted from close range to restore parity and end the game 1-1.

Both sides pushed for a winner late on, but Palace survived multiple attacks from the home side to walk away with a point, which lifted the Eagles into sixth place in the Premier League standings.

Despite admitting after the game that Palace were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty in the second half, Pardew praised his team for showing their quality and battling with Everton for a draw.

"It was a great game, Everton are in form and we were brilliant tonight and some decisions could have gone our way," he told BBC Sport.

"The second decision (Funes Mori challenge on Jordon Mutch), he was 12 yards away and I asked him but he didn't give me answer. I have to accept that. A draw was a fair result.

"If we could have seen that five minutes out after our goal, it might have been different, but all credit to Everton they kept coming and we are really pleased with a draw as it takes us sixth and with a home game to come.

"We showed tonight we have quality."

Goalscorer: Romelu Lukaku has now scored 50 goals for Everton in 100 appearances since leaving Chelsea
Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Lukaku's late tap-in was the striker's 50th goal for Everton since swapping Chelsea for the Toffees in 2014.

And Martinez took his chance to heap praise on the 22-year-old for having netted so many goals in just 100 appearances for the club.

"He has been very consistent throughout the year, not just this season. To score 26 goals in a calendar year is sensational. He is always there to give us a focal point and score goals," the Everton manager said.

"It was a big moment. One hundred games is a landmark moment and 50 goals is a remarkable return. He's only 22, he is in a very good moment of his career. He is vital in everything we are trying to do."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in