Eagles boss: We're looking up rather than down now (From News Shopper)

Eagles boss: We're looking up rather than down now

7:25pm Sunday 1st January 2012 in Crystal Palace By Mark Ritson

CRYSTAL Palace boss Dougie Freedman felt his side deserved their 1-0 victory over south London rivals Millwall at The Den on Saturday, and paid tribute to his squad since taking over a year exactly one year ago.

Indeed, 12 months ago, Palace were thumped 3-0 by the Lions, signalling the end of George Burley's managerial reign, but it was a different story in south Bermondsey this time around after Jermaine Easter's goal in the first period.

"They're a wonderful group of players to work with because they come in everyday, win, lose or draw, and they're ready to go to work," said Freedman.

"We're all working hard together and we're all greedy for success, and we're all facing the right direction.

"If we look back to where we were a year ago, we were in the bottom three and beaten very convincingly against a very good Millwall team, so to fast-forward that a year, we're a different team, a different club and we're on the up.

"That has just shown against Millwall that a year on we are now looking up rather than looking down."

In an end-to-end affair, Freedman believes his side dominated the first-half, but expected Kenny Jackett's men to come out fighting in the second period.

"It was an interesting game and played in a fantastic spirit - a local derby with a lot of passion," said the gaffer.

"Noboby wants to see bookings and sendings off, and I thought the referee was tremendous for letting the game flow.

"I thought because of that, it was a delightful game and obviously I'm delighted to win, but we played it the right way and I thought we controlled the first-half.

"I expected Millwall to give it a good go in the second-half, which they did, but very fortunately for us we have people in the dressing room with a lot of pride and commitment to keeping clean sheets.

"I thought we played fantastically well - we passed it very well and were very calm when we moved the ball."

And the Scotsman hailed the fighting spirit of his players, claiming they had to dig deep to come out on top in a derby fixture which would have always been feisty encounter.

"I can't pick individuals out because if there was one person that pulled out of a challenge or pulled out of a tackle, or put his head where it hurts, we wouldn't have won the game," revealed Freedman.

"I thought everyone was fully committed, if asked to do it, so that was a pleasing thing from my point of view.

"It was also very pleasing to watch a goal like that go in because we practice it, and it's good to see when it actually comes on a Saturday, so we had that bit of quality that got us the goal.

"It was a deserved goal and a deserved win I felt."

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