OLIVER Glasner said he was “exhausted” after Crystal Palace secured a first league double over Brighton & Hove Albion since the 1932-33 season following a crazy end to their game at Selhurst Park last weekend.
The Eagles led 2-1 after goals form Jean-Philippe Mateta and Daniel Munoz either side of Danny Welbeck’s equaliser when Eddie Nketiah was sent off in the 78th minute and captain Marc Guehi in the 90th, both for second yellow cards.
Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke was then sent off in the 96th minute for bringing down Daichi Kamada and the nine men had to survive almost fourteen minutes of added-time before referee Anthony Taylor’s final whistle unleashed scenes of jubilation among the home fans.
“At the moment I’m exhausted,” Glasner said immediately after the match. “Because this game had everything, it’s why we love football.
“The atmosphere at Selhurst was really amazing and everyone goes home happy.
“This group of players…it’s a massive achievement, 92 years for us to win both games against Brighton. It’s a massive win and we’re pretty happy.
“We had to defend all their crosses, they had one free header where we were lucky, but everything else we defended really well. We stayed calm and were fighting for every single ball.
“It was a great experience for them and gives us so many emotions, it was fantastic.”
Glasner explained why his players were used to a numerical disadvantage.
He said: “We just showed them which system they need to play. And they knew what to do. One or two situations changed, with Daichi as like a left wing-back.
“It was not so difficult because we often train nine versuss ten, sometimes eight against ten – but not so often.
“But the players know what they have to do. What I really loved is that they didn’t just defend and wait for the referee to end the game.
“We were waiting for the right moment to go forward, with Daichi forcing the red card, otherwise he would have been one-on-one with the goalkeeper. This mindset I really loved.”
Glasner sent on Joel Ward for the injured Maxence Lacroix in the last minute, the 35-year-old defender’s first league appearance of the season.
Ward revealed the instructions he was given by Glasner before he took the captain’s armband from Guehi.
“To probably use the experience, to communicate and talk and just try and lead the lads to the victory,” Ward said.
“I think when you come into that scenario, you’ve just got to lean on all that you’ve learned over your career and it was all credit to the boys. They settled into that really nicely and it was a dogged performance, especially in that last few minutes.
“I think it’s one of those ones. I think you just go into, what can we do to give ourselves the best chance? We work on it time and time again, where you work overloads in training and you have to defend your box and sometimes your back’s up against a rope.
“Everyone put in a huge shift and it showed the mentality of the lads today to dig in and obviously put their bodies on the line as well.
“[Ben] Chilly’s boxed a couple of big opportunities, [Will] Hughes has done the same, Deano’s [Henderson] pulled off some great saves, and everyone was out there to get the three points.
“It’s massive. Obviously, I think the nature of the game, what it means for the fans, but how things played out, especially in that second half. Losing two players, it was huge for us to dig in deep and come together and obviously see that game out.”
Goalkeeper Henderson faced eleven shots, five of them on target.
“It was phenomenal, obviously, the lads were in the trenches at the end,” Henderson said. “We worked so hard, put ourselves in front in the game. But obviously, with us going down to nine men, you’ve then got to dig deep and build relationships.
“We’ve got a great team spirit and it shows,, everyone working so hard for each other.
“At the end it seemed like no one knew what positions everyone was playing, but we were throwing the bodies in the way, defending the box like mad – and we fully deserved it.
“I’m speechless. It’s fantastic. This fixture is massive for the fans. It means the same to us. We’re delighted and we’ve done the double over them this season, so we’ve got to keep that going.”
Palace, who are eleventh, two points off Bournemouth and four behind Brighton with a game in hand on both, travel to Manchester City on Saturday for a 12.30pm kick-off.
