Crystal Palace defender Brede Hangeland has admitted that the Eagles' players are hurting after conceding a last-minute winner to fall 1-0 to Manchester City at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
Kelechi Iheanacho came off the bench to score for City to break Palace's resolve and inflict a second defeat in a row on Alan Pardew's side.
Hangeland said that the manner of defeat made the loss particularly tough to take, but said that the side would take confidence from a gutsy display.
"It is tough to take," he told Palace's official website. "It is the worst way to lose a game of football. We fought hard and played well in a relatively even game against the league leaders, so to lose like that in the last minute is gutting.
"When it approaches 90 minutes and it is still a draw you hope for a point or even three, so there is a little disappointment but there were plenty of good points. It was a good game and a hard one at that with chances at both ends and on another day we could have won it.
"We can take confidence that we played well against a side that have won five out of five and not conceded a goal and created chances against them. We are on the way to good things and today is proof of that.
"We battled really hard and to come away with nothing is disappointment but there's plenty of confidence we can take. We had a good go but it just was not to be today."
Next up for Palace is a trip across London to face Tottenham Hotspur next Sunday.
Tom Nightingale
