Luka Milivojevic amazed Crystal Palace did not score more goals against West Ham United

BY SAM SMITH

Crystal Palace captain Luka Milivojevic felt the Eagles were unlucky not to add to just the one goal they scored in their 1-1 draw with West Ham on Saturday.

Wilfried Zaha returned from a one-game ban to cancel out Mark Noble’s first-half penalty – although the Ivorian’s strike took a sizeable deflection off Issa Diop.

“I’m very proud with how we played over the 90 minutes,” said the Serb.

“The first half we played well and created two or three chances. In the second half, I don’t even remember how many chances we created. In the end we scored. We were unlucky not to score two or three goals.

“I was sure that, because we were going for the second one and we felt the fans were behind us, that we’d go for the second goal. But they are an experienced team, they dealt in the last 10 minutes with that.  In the end, we scored just one goal. What can I say?”

The South Londoners had fallen behind to Noble’s penalty slightly prior to the half-hour mark when goalkeeper Vicente Guaita felled Michail Antonio. Noble stepped up and converted the spot-kick.

And Milivojevic admitted he felt referee Craig Pawson made the correct decision: “From my point of view, I think it was a clear penalty from how I viewed the situation. What can we do? They scored from the penalty, we tried to turn the game and I think in the end we deserved more from the game.

“Can you imagine if we didn’t get at least one point from this game? We are not happy, because we think we deserve more. But in football, if you can’t win, then don’t lose.”