PALACE boss Iain Dowie took positives from Saturday's 3-1 home defeat against Everton.

He said: "We've got to try and be a bit more clinical when we're in the ascendancy.

"To give them an equalising goal like we did gave them a big lift, and I saw a change in the Everton players afterwards.

"It was a disappointing result but I thought there were some very good performances.

"But for some sloppy defending in the second-half we probably would have got something from the game. Our first-half performance was much better than the second"

Dowie (right) added: "I'm not one of those managers that sits back and takes a 2-1 defeat and we committed a few bodies to go forward.

"But we've got to track their runners and we obviously let Marcus Bent drop off, that was our main fault.

"We'll learn from the goals we conceded and, hopefully, we'll improve at both ends. But I still think that there's lots of positives to take from the game.

"Julian Speroni has good feet but I think he's got to get used to pressure situations and clear his lines, but that's the way things go.

"There was also an incident where Andy Johnson was manhandled in their box and we got nothing.

"Wayne Routledge did very well and it was a great ball for the goal. There were other great performances as well, Andy Johnson was always a threat and I thought Joonas Kolkka showed us what he can do."