Leicester draw like a win for Palace – Allardyce

Crystal Palace’s 2-2 draw with Leicester City felt like a win for Sam Allardyce as his side came from two goals down to salvage a point.

The Eagles were up against it after goals in either half from Robert Huth and Jamie Vardy, but Yohan Cabaye quickly cut the deficit and Christian Benteke’s 70th-minute header secured a share of the spoils.

Palace now hold a seven-point lead over 18th-placed Swansea City in the battle against relegation and Allardyce is optimistic about their chances of staying up.

He said: “The point feels like a win. It was a tremendous fightback from the players and that would not have happened when I first arrived. It just shows the change of mood of the players.

“It is another point on board. Another game gone and it is precious because it keeps our run going. Five wins, one draw and one defeat in seven is a pretty good run. We have got 35 points now and it has been a fantastic run of results. 

“I spent a bit of time boring the players with getting the basics right, but it is the basis of result. For those Leicester goals we did not get them right. We fell to a long throw-in which was very disappointing, especially our marking, and that knocked us back. Then we fell foul to the sucker-punch of a counter-attacking goal, although Vardy took his goal brilliantly

“We knew it was going to be difficult and sometimes we had a bit of trouble breaking them down. But we did that and we came back from 2-0 down. The players deserve a lot of praise.”

SA: We were here yesterday practising defending those long throws from Fuchs and unfortunately for me the players… Forgot.#CPFC pic.twitter.com/YyV6kxnJ1U

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) April 15, 2017

Leicester boss Craig Shakespeare, meanwhile, struggled to hide his disappointment after his side failed to hold on to their lead.

“There is a tinge of disappointment, but Selhurst Park is a tough place to come,” he said.

“I have seen fouls given in oher games for what happened with Benteke goal, but there is nothing we can do about it now.”

Leicester will quickly turn their attention to the midweek match against Atletico Madrid as they look to overturn a 1-0 first-leg defeat to book their place inr the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Shakespeare added: “It is a big ask for Tuesday’s game, but it might be an ask we need.”