Scott Dann admitted last night’s 1-0 defeat at Southampton was hard to take after the Eagles were undone by a late Sadio Mane strike.

Palace were just seven minutes from maintaining their unbeaten record on the road under Alan Pardew when Mane capitalised after Julian Speroni failed to deal with James Ward-Prowse’s initial effort.

The Eagles struggled to get hold of the ball for long periods in the opening period but grew in confidence after the break and were only denied an opening goal when Wilfried Zaha hit the post.

However, they were denied at least a share of the spoils by Mane and Dann was left to lament the loss of what would have been a useful point.

The Palace defender said: “We were on the back foot in the first half, defended really well but did not really have too much going forward.

“We wanted to change that in the second half and for 10 minutes or so we got on top.  

“For the majority of the game we were under the cosh and defended really well.

“Obviously we are disappointed not to come away with anything.

“We have come away with nothing and it is a chance missed to put more points on the board.”

Dann added:  “We never had too much going forward in the first half but we changed that in the second half, got some balls in the box and got people forward. We probably needed a little bit more of a presence up there.

“We were in a good position to get a point and we might have got all three.

“But we are still in a good position and we have got to move on from this game.”

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