ROMAIN Esse said he “forgot everything for a second” after scoring with his first touch in a Crystal Palace jersey in the Eagles’ 2-1 defeat to Brentford at Selhurst Park.
Esse tapped in a cross from Daniel Muñoz at the back post to halve the deficit with five minutes left before doing a knee-slide celebration.
The Bees had gone in front on controversial fashion in the 66th minute.
Brentford were awarded a penalty when Maxence Lacroix fouled Nathan Collins but Bryan Mbeumo’s spot-kick hit the post before Marc Guehi cleared. However, the penalty was ordered to be retaken after the VAR judged that Guehi had encroached in the area, and this time Mbeumo sent Dean Henderson the wrong way.
Kevin Schade headed in a cross from Mikkel Damsgaard with ten minutes remaining and Palace couldn’t rescue anything from the game after Esse, a £14.5million signing from Millwall, had given them hope.
“I think it was a decent performance,” Esse said. “I thought the game was very equal, both teams going at it. I think if the game kept on going for a bit longer, we would have got another goal and then went back in chasing the game.
“But the lads should still be proud. If we perform like that every week we’ll get points out of games. We just need to pick our heads up and go again.”
Esse added: “I didn’t know before the game, but I thought I’m going to be ready regardless. So when I came on I managed to take my chance. I’m looking forward to working hard and improving every day in training, to give myself every best chance of starting games.
“My first-ever Premier League goal is something good to have in life, so I’m happy with that, just obviously disappointed about the result.
“When I scored I forgot everything for a second. But it was good to connect with the fans for a brief moment and hopefully many more of them moments come in the future. I’m just excited to show them what I can do.
“I received a very warm reception from the fans, so I’m very happy and I’m very grateful. I just want to pay them in good performances, which we’ll see very soon.”
Eagles boss Oliver Glasner was pleased with the one bright note on a disappointing afternoon.
“Of course we had in our minds that [Esse] would get some minutes,” Glasner said. “We thought we need some attacking input with Daichi [Kamada] and him, so we also changed the shape to a 4-4-2, with Eddie [Nketiah] as a second striker.
“We knew [for the goal] we could have an overload on the far post in this situation and we managed to find Daniel Muñoz. Romain had a great run, and then a nice finish, so it’s good for him, giving him confidence, and it helps us for the next weeks.”
Glasner added; ”I think the performance was okay, but okay isn’t good enough. Especially two minutes before the penalty, we made too many mistakes in our own box. We couldn’t clear the ball and then we cause a penalty.
“Everything went wrong with this situation but the first three or four mistakes were our mistakes. No one is to blame for it.
“Then when you are 1-0 down against Brentford it is difficult, we didn’t create many chances today.
“The reaction after their second goal was great. We got a goal from Romain, then we tried everything but we were not quite accurate enough.
“We had some set-plays, but we were not good enough in these situations to score the equaliser – and that’s why we lost the game.”
Glasner praised the fans for their backing in difficult weather conditions.
“Especially at the end,” Glasner said. “They pushed us forward to try and get the equaliser. So thanks for supporting us again, in not the nicest conditions.
“They stayed and believed in us. Today we couldn’t give them something back, but we will do our best to get the win at Old Trafford.”
That game against Manchester United is on Sunday at 2pm.
