Daws reflects on 'game of two halves'

The rigours of trying to break teams down when they come to the Lane were on the mind of Michael Dawson after Saturday’s win against Crystal Palace.

Second half goals from Christian Eriksen and Jermain Defoe sent the Eagles home empty-handed after a fine first half outing from Tony Pulis’ side, in which they coped with our attacking intent and looked dangerous going forward.

After skippering us to another win, Daws was left to reflect on a hard-earned victory – but warned that it’s never going to be plain sailing when taking on sides battling for Premier League survival.

“Sometimes we’re not always going to get what we want at home,” he said, after we came out fighting in the second half in the wake of a first period in which we struggled to get going. “Teams will come and sit in, but we don’t want to give them as many chances as Palace had – that’s the main key.

“Tim certainly let us know (at half-time) that he was not happy with the way we performed, but we knew that as players, and in the second half we went out and showed a lot of character.

“The main thing that Tim wanted was for us to show that fighting spirit and also to deal with the pressure. Crystal Palace are down near the bottom of the league and teams don’t come and lie down here. They worked their socks off in the first half but our quality came through in the second.”

Michael added that he was pleased with the way we rode out the early spells of Palace pressure and went on to secure the three points.

“We’re really pleased,” he said after the game. “You could say football is a game of two halves and that couldn’t be more correct today because in the first half we struggled to deal with them, they got everyone behind the ball, tried to hit us on the break and missed a penalty as well.

“But we stood strong as a team and thankfully we got the win at the end of the game."