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Cape Town - Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew was pleased with his players after they fought back to secure a 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Alexis Sanchez put the Gunners ahead on the stroke of half-time, but an 81st-minute equaliser from Yannick Bolasie saw the Eagles earn a point and a bit of pride after what has been a difficult year, with only one win and nine defeats in 2016.
"My team deserve tremendous credit because it is tough to play here," Padrew said. "We had a game plan that meant we would make sure that they didn't have a fast start and then build as the game went on.
"That is how it played out and then at the end we nearly won it with that great run from [Wilfried Zaha]. We didn't deserve that though but we had a good strategy to us today and the lads did well.
"I was a bit disappointed to concede that goal just before half time, we hadn't retained the ball well enough but we stayed in there and it was important that we didn't allow them to get into fourth or fifth gear.
"We kept them in third gear and they came out in the second half and played much the same and we knew we could get better and that is exactly what happened.
"What we should take from today is that we need to a little more exuberance in our game, we showed more at the end but we should have done that in the first half but it's understandable as it is a tough place to come because they keep possession so well."
