Palace were unlucky to lose – Pardew

Alan Pardew feels Crystal Palace were unlucky to lose after their dismal run of Premier League defeats was extended by a 2-1 reverse against AFC Bournemouth.

Pardew called for his side to show more composure after they let a 1-0 lead slip following Scott Dann’s opener at Selhurst Park – the first to be scored by a Palace player in the league in 2016.

Bournemouth turned the game with goals from Marc Pugh and Benik Afobe, condemning Palace to their fifth straight league defeat, and Pardew admitted that his team could not afford to depend on the return of injured stars like Yohan Cabaye and Yannick Bolasie to change their fortunes.

He said: “I thought we lacked a bit of composure. We missed Yohan to put his foot on it and slow it down. It was frantic.

“I thought we were unlucky to lose. We had some good chances, they had two chances and they went in.

“We can’t wait for Yannick [to return] – our result needs to come now. We’re going to have to dig in at Swansea [City on Saturday]. It’s going to be tough. We’ve done well in the cup but we need a win in the league.”

Pardew gave new signing Emmanuel Adebayor his Palace debut in the second half, but the Togolese striker could not extend his record of having scored on all of his previous Premier League debuts.

Pardew said: “Ade did okay. He’s come into a team that isn’t flying. We’ve been disrupted by injuries, it’s a really tough period for us.

“If we can get quality [deliveries] into the box, Ade will take them. We need to create for him.”