Palace claim 'precious victory' on Speroni's landmark day
Crystal Palace's late victory over Watford on Tuesday was significant in many ways and it was all the more sweet for their veteran goalkeeper Julian Speroni.
The Argentine was making his 400th appearance for the club, though his big day threatened to go pear-shaped early on after Watford took the lead with just three minutes played.
That proved to be a false dawn though and helped by Tom Cleverley's dismissal for a second yellow card, Palace scored twice late on to claim a valuable win that lifted them out of the Premier League relegation zone.
Speaking following the game, Speroni admitted that the start was far from ideal but said that the 'Eagles' fought back after the break.
'We suffered a lot after the goal they scored so early in the match,' the 38-year-old said. 'In the first half I think they were quite a bit better than us.
'But then in the second we controlled the match and that shows you that you have to keep pushing to the end because you never know what's going to happen.'
Speroni hailed his side for their comeback victory, saying that it was a fine example of the spirit within the camp.
'We found those two goals that in the end gave us this precious victory,' he said.
'That's the character of this squad to keep on plugging away even when things don't work out. You could say we had quite a bit of bad luck in our recent matches that we deserved to win and ended up drawing.
'Today, thank God we got the result we so wanted, to add (points) in threes is so important.'
Finally, the former Dundee stopper admitted his delight at reaching 400 games for the club where he has acquired icon status.
'I'm really happy, playing 400 matches is not an everyday thing, it's been many years of hard work to keep in shape and keep playing at the best level,' he said.
'I feel good and I want to play all the matches if possible.'