Allardyce: Two points dropped for Palace

Sam Allardyce feels Crystal Palace deserved more than a 1-1 draw from their Premier League Boxing Day encounter with Watford at Vicarage Road in his first game in charge.

Yohan Cabaye handed Palace the lead before the break with a fine finish before Christian Benteke wasted a gilt-edged chance to make it 2-0 when he missed a penalty.

Palace were made to pay after the break when Troy Deeney levelled the scoring from the spot and Allardyce rued his side’s profligacy in front of goal.

“It is two points dropped for me. In some ways that is encouraging in your first game, away from home,” Allardyce told Sky Sports.

“On the balance of what happened it should have been a win but from our point of view there were too many chances thrown away.

“The penalty was the big one, to go 2-0 up and then there could have been another penalty we should have had, that might have got us a win.

“But overall, if we keep that up we will hopefully turn results into victories. I was looking for the clean sheet but sadly we gave that away by giving them a soft penalty.”

Watford manager Walter Mazzarri, meanwhile, was pleased by his side’s recovery following a nightmare start to the game that saw both Daryl Janmaat and Valon Behrami forced off early on due to injury.

“Considering everything that happened in the first 15 minutes [when Watford had to make two changes through injury], which has never happened to me in my whole career, that can change any team, so yeah, in the end we are happy,” Mazzarri stated.

“I did not like the performance of my team but I am happy with how the spirit of the team came out in the second half.”

Monday’s match was a special one for Deeney, who started from the bench, but netted his 100th goal for Watford after coming on.

“It is nice to finally get it [his 100th goal for Watford],” Deeney told Sky Sports.

“When you are not having the best of moments in front of goal just smash it down the middle. Thankfully it went in and hopefully we can move on from this.

“I have been having a bit of a stinker recently, so it is a huge weight off my shoulders.

“I thought I was poor against Sunderland so the gaffer had every right to drop me. The rest was just about digging in and making sure we were still in the game.”