Crystal Palace manager Pierre Sage admitted the Eagles have much to improve on, despite claiming their first Premier League win with a 3-2 away win at Fulham.
Palace were twice behind in the game with Josh King and Cesar Palacios giving the hosts the lead; however, a first career brace for
Tyrick Mitchell saw the Eagles wipe out the Cottagers ' single-goal lead on both occasions.
It was Mitchell’s replacement, Ben Chilwell, who marked his return to Crystal Palace in style with a sumptuous volley into the bottom right corner, which ultimately sealed an important three points for Sage’s side.
The Frenchman spoke about how Mitchell's performance could be a good lesson for those coming through Palace’s academy.
"It's always a nice story when it happens like this, and especially with this guy because, you know, he's really shy. Everybody loves him in the dressing room.
"It's a good sign for the players from the academy because he gives away, and some of them trained with us this week and maybe we will need them in our games because they have opportunities to come and they have to take it.
"I saw a lot of players from the academy during pre-season. Now I have a good idea of their level and their potential to be with us.
"But Tyrick is a good example, and maybe sometimes you have to be a mirror, if I can say that, with what he did."
Both sides came into the game having lost their opening two matches, and Sage stressed the importance of the win.
"You know, the most important thing for a guy is to have petrol. And the petrol is the victory.
"When you have three points, you have confidence, you are happy, you enjoy [things] on the pitch, and when you have pressure, you don't take initiative.
That's why it's really important to win, especially in our situation, because we lost the first two games."
Today our opponent is in a bad situation. We were in the same situation before the games, but I just want to give them my hope because I understand the situation.
Despite the win, however, Sage stressed that he needed to try to alter things to improve defensively.
"I have to accept the story of today because that was the context of the game. But I have to change things and improve the way of defending with the players because we were too open in the first half and not really well coordinated.
"That's why they scored the second goal, especially. But they had a lot of opportunities, and we scored the first goal after a mistake in the build-up, and we have to improve that too.
That's why today's lesson is free because we won. But we are aware of the condition of this victory."
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