Freedman proud despite cup exit (From News Shopper)

Freedman proud despite cup exit

12:45pm Wednesday 25th January 2012 in Crystal Palace By Sam Ross

A DEJECTED but proud Dougie Freedman praised his side’s desire and spirit after they bowed out of the Carling Cup semi-finals in the cruellest of ways at Cardiff.

The Eagles were denied their first trip to the new Wembley by the Bluebirds in a penalty shootout last night after the second leg finished 1-0 after 90 minutes and extra-time.

But the Selhurst boss admitted he couldn’t have asked anything more from his players, who were reduced to 10 men when captain Paddy McCarthy was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 78th minute.

“It was a fantastic physical effort,” said Freedman.

“They asked us a lot of questions in the first 20 minutes. We dug in and showed great mental strength.

“We grew into the game in the second half and were looking likely to get a goal.

“The sending off is very disappointing, but as a manager you can’t ask for anything more than the response we showed.

“I’ve not seen the sending off but Howard Webb is a fantastic referee and I would have backed his decision because nine times out of 10 he gets them right.

“We defended fantastically well, rode our luck at times and it went to penalties and it just wasn’t to be.

“The desire and commitment to work hard was second to none and I am really proud of that.”

With extra-time frantically drawing to a close, many Palace fans were worrying about who was going to step up to take a penalty and Freedman admitted that he was forced to dramatically change his list of spot kick takers.

He said: “There was a list of penalty takers that weren’t on the field for whatever reason, they had been subbed or it changed for tactical reasons, so you ask some players to do something that doesn’t come natural to them.

“But I did pick them and I did tell them what order they were going to go in and there was one player who said he was uncomfortable with taking it, which is fine.

“My only thinking is that with so much physical exertion over the game, it was difficult to compose yourself and slot the penalties.

“It shows a lot of courage in taking penalties, which I have in my team, but in the end we got knocked out on penalties in a semi-final.”

Freedman was also quick to praise the efforts of the travelling fans and point out the positives of the night which will benefit the Eagles in the future.

He added: “I’m disappointed short term but I can really take a lot from it in the long term.

“The players will reflect on this and be proud of the way they conducted themselves on the pitch.

“I think we won a lot of supporters tonight in the way we played.

“Our fans were great, they were very proud of the courage the team showed to keep on going.”

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