Gary Cahill: Winter break helped Crystal Palace – I couldn’t wait to make amends for my display at Everton

BY ROB SUTHERLAND

Gary Cahill says that the winter break helped Crystal Palace recuperate after a difficult festive schedule.

The former England international – speaking after the 1-0 home win over Newcastle on Saturday – emphasised it was not only the Eagles who will benefit.

“It’s a very good thing within the league,” said Cahill. “Especially for the lads who are playing Champions League and going into tournaments at the end of the year – mentally more than anything, it’s a great thing.

“It’s very intense. On the back of three defeats we had a break, and you must have seen from the performance that it was a good thing for us. We looked fit, we looked sharp. We looked more like we want to be.”

Palace won the game thanks to a Patrick van Aanholt goal in a dominant performance in which both Cahill and Scott Dann could have scored but for magnificent saves from Martin Dubravka.

“When you’re dominant early on and the goalkeeper pulls off saves like that, you’re going to be in for a long afternoon,” said Cahill. “But we stayed patient. The manager had said we’d have to be patient.

“We didn’t get frustrated. Even when we went 1-0 up, we should have scored again. But we stayed at it, kept going and we thoroughly deserved the win.

“For me the game couldn’t come fast enough – I was way below against Everton.

“I was not happy with my performance. And I couldn’t wait to play again – but we had to wait longer.

“I enjoyed my week, it niggled with me, and I was ready to come back and play again.

“We had a very good week’s training. And we just have to do the same again against Brighton.”

PICTURE BY KEITH GILLARD