‘Dust ourselves down’ – Palace stopper Matthews reflects on Liverpool loss

BY ANDREW MCSTEEN

Crystal Palace lost their second, successive Premier League game with a 2-1 loss to Liverpool on Saturday at Selhurst Park to continue a run which has seen just one win in their last nine.

An eventful match saw Matthews finally make his Crystal Palace debut after signing for the club in July 2021 when he came on in the 87th minute, replacing the injured Sam Johnstone.

The performance was much improved after the 2-0 defeat at home against Bournemouth on Wednesday night, where the team had left the pitch at the end of both halves being booed by the fans.

The Eagles went 1-0 ahead with a Jean-Philippe Mateta VAR-decided penalty in the 57th minute, but with Jordan Ayew then sent off in the 75th minute and Liverpool equalising through Mo Salah a minute later, Matthews was beaten late on by a Harvey Elliot strike in additional time to hand the visitors all three points.

“It’s one of them where I was literally unsighted, I couldn’t see it,” said Matthews about the game-deciding strike.

“Then, I think because he struck it so well, you’ve got probably two seconds to react to it – if you make the save it’s a worldie save, if it goes in, it’s a great finish.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down again now and move forward to Saturday and we need another performance like that.”

The performance, and subsequent comments from Palace boss Roy Hodgson about the VAR incidents and refereeing in the game, which saw the manager himself receive a yellow card, appeared to reignite the passion and bond between the fans of the SE25 club and the team and manager, following the disastrous midweek performance.

“Obviously, it was a much better performance – we knew what we had to do,” said Matthews. “The gaffer made us a game plan and I thought from the first minute to the last minute we were excellent.

“Overall, [it’s] a disappointing result in the end but I think if you look at the circumstances it didn’t go our way, another day they do and we potentially get three points.”

With 10 minutes of additional time being played, the Eagles did not give up in their attacking intent, forcing a number of corners late on and bringing the very best out of Liverpool goalkeeper Allison,

“I was trying to see if I could potentially go up but you never know how long is left these days with so much added on time. I think we still had another two or three minutes left,” said Matthews.

“Allison pulls off a worldie save again.

“He’s a top goalkeeper and you can see that. He’s one of the best goalkeepers in the world, if not probably the best, so fair play to him. It’s something you look up to.”