AFCB

First Team

Howe felt point was deserved at Palace

AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe felt his side deserved a point from the frantic 2-2 draw at Crystal Palace.

The manager spoke in his pre-match press conference about the game, including the penalties incidents, Jermain Defoe’s stunning goal and the performance of his team.

ON THE PENALTIES...

I haven’t seen them again, I’m only basing what I say on speaking to the players.

The first one after talking to them, it’s not clear cut, whereas the second one, the players feel it wasn’t a penalty and Charlie got the ball.

Of course that really hurts, as we can lose the game with the second one, but for a fantastic save by Asmir.

If you look at last week’s one that wasn’t given for us and the two today, we’re on the wrong end of some decisions at the moment.

ON THE PERFORMANCE…

I think if they’d have scored late on it would’ve been hard for us, we played well.

The team were very good today and passed it excellently, there was a really good balance about the team and I am pleased with the majority.

They have a huge physical threat and we were under pressure in the last ten, we defended for our lives.

I’m really pleased with the mentality of the team.

ON JERMAIN DEFOE’S GOALS…

They were two good finishes, the first one was not as easy as he made it seem. They were two totally different goals and I’m really pleased.

He had no right to score the second at the angle he was, but that just shows the unique talent of Jermain.

Hopefully it’s a start for him, he had a few niggles early on in the season so he was setback a little. Now he’s getting back to where he wants to be and that will give us a big lift.