Thomas Frank described it as a game where ‘desire beat details’ as we ran out 1-0 winners against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Sunday.
The team showed all the grit and determination required to come out of SE25 with maximum points – corners, free-kicks and Jefferson Lerma’s long throws were all repelled, often with Kevin Danso winning the first contact. He was later named Sky’s Player of the Match.
Speaking to us under the lights at Selhurst Park, Thomas reflected: “I’m very happy with the desire, mentality and the character of the team. I think it’s a classic game where desire beat details.
“To come here and win 1-0, difficult place, good Crystal Palace team… I love the discipline of the team. We didn’t give any big transitions away to them, which is one of their biggest threats. I like how we managed to get in good positions, defending and also hang in there throughout the game.
"In open play, I think maybe we only gave one chance away when it went to the back post and they had a shot. The rest were set pieces where we defended very well, sometimes you need to get your body on the line, you need to get the clearances in, blocks, so the defensive mindset was great today, which we need.
“You achieve nothing if you can't get wins like this. This is something I'm very happy with in terms of resilience. It was not a perfect performance, not at all, but the desire, the effort, the character, all that, you need to be a good team. That was a very good foundation today, which I'm very pleased with.”