Seagulls penalty hard to take for Dougie (From News Shopper)

Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton

1:30pm Wednesday 1st February 2012 in Crystal Palace By Nick Gentry

EAGLES manager Dougie Freedman was left disappointed by a dubious penalty decision which denied Crystal Palace a historic double over bitter rivals Brighton.

Chris Martin had given the home side the lead from the spot after the impressive Wilfried Zaha’s trickery proved too much for Will Buckley, whose outstretched leg sent the 19-year-old sprawling.

Freedman’s side gained in stature and looked to be shutting out of the game when an innocuous ball forward wasn’t dealt with by the Palace back-line and Buckley somehow came away with the ball.

As he broke into the box, the recovering Nathaniel Clyne went shoulder-to-shoulder with the young winger, sending him tumbling and prompting the linesman to immediately flag for a penalty.

Referee Stuart Atwell was initially unconvinced, an opinion shared by the Palace boss who was disappointed with his side’s defending in the lead up to the goal.

And Freedman admitted that it was the sort of game they needed to win if they are to sneak into the top six this season.

He said: “I don’t think it was a penalty but I do think that we gave the referee an opportunity to give it.

“We could have defended it a lot better.

“It was sloppy on our behalf, which has happened very seldom since I’ve been here.

“I’m disappointed because it was in our hands.

“It’s the sort of game you have to be winning if you want to be getting into the play-offs and maybe it isn’t quite our time to get into the play-offs.”

Despite the penalty decision, Freedman was at least pleased with his side’s reaction to the disappointment of last week’s Carling cup exit.

He explained: “We did what we do best tonight - we defended well at times, we broke on them and I think we were outplaying them and overpowering them, especially after we got the goal.

“I thought we were going to go on and win it convincingly.

“We put every ounce of energy and effort into it against a good Brighton team who at times got on top of the game.

“But we dug in and when we got the goal, we looked a really good team and the momentum was with us.

“Even at times I thought some players found it too easy, which is disappointing because they’ve got to go for the throat and kill the game.

“But we let them back into it, so I’m disappointed but also proud of their reaction to last Tuesday.”

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