Freedman hails 'fantastic win'

Dougie Freedman: Felt his Crystal Palace side deserved their win at Nottingham Forest

Crystal Palace manager Dougie Freedman felt his side's 1-0 success at Nottingham Forest was well deserved as they recorded their first victory in eight Championship games.

Despite enjoying the better of play in the first half, Forest were unable to make the breakthrough, with Glenn Murray's pinpoint strike 10 minutes after the break proving sufficient to give the Eagles a much-needed three points.

And Freedman was quick to praise his side's display at the City Ground.

"It was a fantastic result and the performance merited it," said the Scot.

"Forest are a good team with good attacking players but we stood up to them and got our rewards.

"We showed a lot of spirit and pride to come away with a result. Our performances recently have been good but we have not been getting the crucial goals. Today we did.

"We have had a lot of games in a short space of time recently but I was delighted with everyone today. They all played their part in an excellent display.

"We are a growing team and a growing club and to be sitting in the top half of the division and in the semi-final of a cup is great. The good thing is that we are getting better all the time.

"I don't want to dampen expectations but we have to be realistic and talk of us being involved in the play-offs would be a huge bonus."

Fantastic

Meanwhile, Steve Cotterill remains upbeat despite Forest remaining firmly rooted in the relegation zone as their inability to score extended to a fourth consecutive league game.

He argued: "We could have been 4-0 up at half-time and ended up winning the game six.

"There is not a lot wrong with us and we played some fantastic football. But it's not a big secret that we struggle to score goals.

"If we had a regular 20-goal-a-season man we would not have lost the games we have come to the stage when one or two of our strikers have got to come to the fore.

"We have tried all sorts of permutations, we work on our finishing in training but we have got to find a way of taking chances and getting on the end of all the crosses that go into the opposition box.

"We have just got to keep on working at it until it comes right for us. We have got to knock that door down and start scoring goals because there is a lot of good in what we are doing."