Trevor Francis celebrated his first win in charge of Crystal Palace as the Eagles got back in the promotion race with a 2-1 win over Manchester City at Selhurst Park on Saturday.
The win ended Palace's run of four defeats in a row and Francis praised his hard working side.
He said: "The effort we put in is certainly an improvement on last week. I think the lads have come off the field knowing they have played a hard game.
"It's the first time for me to be two-up up at half-time against Manchester City, but they pulled one back and it was very difficult for us to hold on.
"But it was a very welcome win."
Kit Symons had an impressive debut for Palace after his £400,000 move from Fulham on Friday.
Francis said: "We saw Kit on Friday morning and then had probably longest training session any player here can remember on the eve of a match. We were doing a lot of work on set pieces involving Kit, and it was encouraging to see that he got that important flick-on for our first and crucial goal.
"I was pleased with him and the other defender I brought in, Christian Edwards.
"We looked more solid than in the previous game I watched."
After being on the wrong end of some Manchester City pressure for the first 30 minutes, Palace then took the lead.
Hayden Mullins' free-kick was flicked on by Symons onto Dougie Freedman, who slipped the ball passed former Palace keeper Carlo Nash for his 15th goal of the
season.
On the stroke of half-time, Jovan Kirovski scored a second for Palace when he stabbed home Simon Rodger's left-wing cross from close range despite the valiant attempt by Nash in trying to scoop it back.
But Palace were unable to build on their two-goal lead and after 68 minutes City got back into the game when Shaun Goater scored from a rebound after Alex Kolinko had initially saved Shaun Wright-Phillips' initial shot.
Kolinko, in for the injured Matt Clarke, then made an outstanding save to stop Goater equalising five minutes from the end.
Meanwhile, Francis will be making the trip to his old club Birmingham last night as the News Shopper went to press and former Palace boss Steve Bruce is set to take over at St Andrews after the fixture once a compensation deal is agreed.
Francis speaking before thematch said: "It will be strange. It will be the first time I've ever sat in the away dug-out there. I didn't even do that while I was at QPR and Sheffield Wednesday.
"It would have been more difficult to return to St Andrews if we hadn't got this win.
"Our confidence had been sapped by our run of defeats, but the win over City was a welcome victory and will help us enormously."
This Saturday, Palace travel to Watford.
Palace have been drawn away to Newcastle in the third round of the FA Cup. The tie will be played on the weekend of January 5/6/7.
Third Division Torquay United have signed reserve midfielder Sean Hankin for an undisclosed fee. The 20-year-old had been on loan there for two months.
December 11, 2001 11:42
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