Chris Smalling says Man Utd win over Crystal Palace like Sir Alex Ferguson era
Tuesday 6 March 2018 18:06, UK
Chris Smalling says Manchester United's dramatic comeback at Crystal Palace was reminiscent of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.
Nemanja Matic's stunning injury-time strike secured a 3-2 victory for United on Monday Night Football, having fallen behind to goals from Andros Townsend and Patrick van Aanholt.
Smalling's 55th-minute header kick-started the second-half recovery, a trait often referenced during Ferguson's time as manager of the club.
Asked if the performance and spirit reminded him of playing under Ferguson, Smalling said: "Yeah, it did. There's not been many games where we've come back - granted, there's not many games when we've gone 2-0 down - but you can see how close we are as a group that everyone celebrated together, and how much it means to us, because that was a huge win.
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"Our intensity really increased and you could see probably four of [Palace's] guys cramping up, and that gave us that edge where we thought we could go after them.
"Even when it was 2-2, where in some games you'd probably take that after being 2-0 down, we went after them. It was great.
"It shows that no matter how bad we might be playing in that first half, that we can go after teams. Doing it away from home - our home record's a lot better than our away form - that's a huge win.
"We walked in [at half-time] and already knew we weren't playing enough, needed to increase it, and conceded so early as well [in the second half] with a sloppy goal. We had everything in front of us to do, and we did it."
Monday's victory ensured United stay two points above third-placed Liverpool in the Premier League table, ahead of the two teams meeting on Saturday, live on Sky Sports.
