Sunday 15 May 2016 20:14, UK
Alan Pardew blames two refereeing decisions after seeing his Crystal Palace side suffer a heavy 4-1 defeat to Southampton.
The FA Cup finalists lost 4-1 to Southampton which means Palace have lost three of their last six league matches, and will finish the season in either 15th or 16th depending on whether Bournemouth can get a result in their abandoned match against Manchester United.
Two of Southampton's goals drew controversy surrounding their second and third goal. There was a point of contention involving the Saints' second goal and whether Graziano Pelle had fouled Adrian Mariappa before leaping up to put Ronald Koeman's side 2-0 in front.
Then, with Crystal Palace 2-1 up, Southampton won a penalty after Sadio Mane was sandwiched by two defenders, and Pardew feels the contact made was outside the box.
"It was a close game and two terrible decisions went against us today," he said,
"Pelle pushes our defender, and looks at the referee after he scores because he knows he fouls him and he's got out of it. It's a poor decision and everyone sees it, we all knew it was a push.
"The second one the penalty isn't in the box, the contact is outside. So two poor penalty decisions."
But Pardew was pleased with how his side created numerous opportunities despite resting players for the cup final, and injuries, meant he made five changes to his usual starting eleven.
"It was always going to be difficult if we bought our strongest eleven here because Southampton are in great form and finished fifth at the moment because on merit so I'm not taking anything away from them but it wasn't a 4-1 game by any stretch of the imagination."
And despite the disappointing end to Crystal Palace's Premier League campaign, Pardew is looking ahead to the club's FA Cup final on Saturday evening.
"It's a week that you must enjoy," he explained.
"It doesn't come around often in football so the players should enjoy it, embrace it, but we're not going to have a good day out, we're going to play to win."
