Comeback delights Freedman

Dougie Freedman: Thrilled with the best comeback of his managerial career

Dougie Freedman praised the fighting qualities of his Crystal Palace side after their 3-2 win over Cardiff, while Malky Mackay felt his men had capitulated.

The Eagles were two goals behind at half-time thanks to efforts by Aron Gunnarsson and Don Cowie, before Glenn Murray's hat-trick completed a remarkable turnaround.

Freedman admitted he could not recall a better comeback in his managerial career as he savoured an unlikely three points.

"As manager it was the best comeback," Freedman said. "I don't think we deserved to be two down. To show the character and energy we did, it was a correct result.

"If you were watching the game, you saw we didn't deserve to be down. We played with fantastic approach play, with crosses.

"In the second half, the shots were coming off and we were causing them a lot of problems. Cardiff are a good side and we've stood up to good challenges with them and Forest this week [1-1 draw on Tuesday]."

Gifted

Cardiff manager Mackay agreed that the defeat was a self-inflicted one, following their impressive midweek win at Millwall.

"We committed suicide by gifting Palace two penalties. The first one, one of our players raised his arm. With the other one Helguson made a rash challenge," he said.

"I was disappointed today and delighted at Millwall. If we don't give two penalties away we would have sat top of the table tonight.

"I don't have any qualms with the penalty decisions. In the first half we scored two good goals and the third chance, nine times out of 10 Bellamy would have taken that. But we gifted them two penalties."