Dowie praises Eagles' spirit

Crystal Palace manager Iain Dowie praised a display “full of heart and desire” as a run of five successive Premiership defeats was ended with a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.

Palace striker Andy Johnson’s early goal was cancelled out by Lee Hendrie’s stunning strike but the visitors defended resolutely and always looked dangerous on the break.

Dowie said: “We’ve had some very good moments at Palace where the players have done you proud and I thought today we were tremendous.

“There has been a lot of flak flying about and a lot of pressure building on us but I thought it was a display full of heart and desire.

“We had some great chances. A lot of good things have happened today and it is just one more rung on the ladder for us that we’ve climbed.

“David O’Leary has got this club going again and they have got some quality players but we’ve dealt with them very well today.”

Villa manager David O’Leary was disappointed with his side’s performance and their failure to break down Palace in the same way as they had only managed a draw at Norwich the previous weekend.

He said: “I am disappointed but a point was all we deserved. Good luck to Crystal Palace. They came, they had a certain way of playing, 4-5-1, and we hadn’t got the quality to break them down. Good luck to them.

“I thought we played poorly but we have got to have a reality check. Yes, we are Aston Villa and we have got a superb stadium but that doesn’t give you any points or wins.

“I don’t know whether the expectation of supposedly being expected to win the game affected us. But it is down to us at home if teams play that way, to open them up. We didn’t have the quality to open them up today.”