Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce rips into players after heavy Man City defeat and singles out Martin Kelly
Eagles suffered devastating 5-0 defeat at Etihad to put the pressure on ahead of crunch relegation clash against Hull
SAM ALLARDYCE has slammed his Crystal Palace stars in the wake of their heavy 5-0 defeat to Manchester City.
The Eagles have been enjoying a fine revival under Big Sam, grabbing impressive wins against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal.
But Palace’s defence went to pot from the off this afternoon, with City grabbing their first goal of the game after just two minutes.
An even worse second half saw four goals shipped, and Allardyce believes his team were nothing short of terrible after singling out Martin Kelly for City’s opener.
The ex-England boss told BBC Radio Five Live: “Our system did not cause us to concede today’s first goal – our defender had to clear the ball and he didn’t, and from it they scored.
“Individuals did not perform to our usual standards. We didn’t really recover from that.
“I did not expect to see what we saw in the second half, which was very disappointing because we’d fought back into the game and were keeping Manchester City at bay.
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“But Vincent Kompany was free in our box and scored their second, and after that we simply lost control and Manchester City scored more and more.
“My team was unrecognisable from what I’ve seen over the last two or three months – hopefully that is a one-off and the lads have got it out of our system ahead of the biggest game of the season next week at home to Hull. But [we were] very disappointing here.”