Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has claimed that his team produced their best performance of the season despite ending up on the losing side against Liverpool this afternoon.
The Eagles looked on course for a point when Wilfried Zaha cancelled out Sadio Mane's opener in the 82nd minute, but their parity was short-lived as Roberto Firmino quickly hit the winner to seal a 12th win from 13 games for Liverpool this season.
The result makes it five games without a win for Palace, although Hodgson believes that his side deserved a point and was keen to take positives from the performance against a team that has now won 20 of their last 21 top-flight outings.
"Close but no cigar. I think it was our best performance of the season - I thought we really did play well. We were very pleased at half time with the team's performance and that carried on into the second half," Hodgson told reporters at his post-match press conference.
"It's a bitter blow after getting what we thought was a deserved equaliser to concede that second goal from the unfortunate corner and take away that point which we thought we were worth.
"But that's football, we have to learn to live with that. I do honestly believe that was a very good team performance and another day we would have got that point."
Palace now sit 13th in the Premier League table, three points off the top six and five above the relegation zone.
Barney Corkhill
