Remind me the next penalty like that one today under Sam. Bet you that is the last one. That will be the difference. With Alan things happened repetitively. Sam knows the fine margins, respect for points and how precious they and your goal and scoring goals are.

'Respect the point away from home' was his comment post-match. Very subtle but you know he's highlighting a major problem. We have good players but the mentality is all wrong, so is the preparation, alertness and fitness. It'll all change for the better. Shame we didn't win today because we should've been in a position to test us seeing a game out for 45 mins but if we had been picking up a point regularly when we should've like today, we wouldn't question today, or probably even have Sam here at all.

Edited by Rudi Hedman (26 Dec 2016 7.51pm)

He will also, if he does go there, have to produce vs 10+ teams happy to concede 70% possession and 2 players to beat all the time.

He is getting closer to their level but he needs to do it for a bit longer. If you see his defending he assumes they can't get round him but enough times for it to be an issue at the top level a player can knock it outside of him and whip a cross in. A mistake if he goes next month IMO.

Hull sorted out their game against better oppo away from home v Spurs and West Ham I think. We should've beaten them though. They were open enough to be beat. That was a c0ck up.

It was a fortunate guess/read by the keeper although you could just wait and still have time to respond to the direction of the ball. It wasn't really a good 'save' as such because it was such a sh1t penalty that is to easy to stop going in. Too close to the middle, too soft, too predictable because that's his trick. I'd say it was good goalkeeping in the sense he did his homework and knew what he's likely to do. He deserves credit for it but I wouldn't call it a good 'save', definitely a sh1t pen you won't see again I reckon.

There were some positives to take away from the game, and also some negatives.

Sam will have seen the best and worst of Palace today, all in one game.

Had Benteke have scored, I think we would have won comfortably.

But the second half performance was a disappointment.

..was that because of the way Watford played, or was it because of the way we played?

There will always be two answers to this.

..yes, Zaha was definitely looking for it and if perhaps one day he actually learns that by trying to stay on his bloody feet he might actually be able to help his mates a little bit more, he mucks about toooooo much and if Spurs come for him we should agree huge amounts and strengthen ourselves with an actual goalkeeper and an actual defender.