Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew admitted his players had “blurred vision” in last night’s Premier League defeat at Manchester United.
United were comfortable in victory from the moment Damien Delaney put into his own net inside five minutes - Matteo Darmian made it 2-0 in the second half.
However, Pardew acknowledged that, despite his best efforts, his charges made one eye on Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final.
“To concede an own goal when you want to start well puts you on the back foot and gives them confidence, and you could see that they have been on a good run,” he said.
“We’ve got blurred vision because Sunday is huge for our football club.
“I could sense it a little, and we tried to wash it away and get the focus on this game.
“We worked hard and were diligent, but we were protecting ourselves a little bit which is understandable. As much as I did not want that, it is natural.”
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He added: “United won very comfortably, but we have come through unscathed and we can look forward to Sunday.”
Pardew made six changes to the side that started the1-1 at the Emirates on Sunday, with Julian Speroni, Martin Kelly, Adrian Mariappa, Wilfried Zaha, Lee Chung-yong, Bakary Sako and Emmanuel Adebayor brought into the action.
The match also saw a return to the action for James McArthur, who has been out injured since February.
Pardew said: “The idea was to give people an opportunity and some have played their way into my thinking for Sunday.
“Zaha played well, it was nice to see James [McArthur] back on the pitch, we have missed him and he got 30 minutes. Adebayor got 60 minutes, and Connor got some game time.
“So all in all, no sending offs and no injuries, we would have liked to have gotten something on the board, but they were too good for us.”
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