Crystal Palace fell to a late 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in Oliver Glasner's second game in charge of the Eagles.
Palace took the lead on the hour mark after a fantastic free kick from Eberechi Eze, just outside the area, curled past Guglielmo Vicario.
However, questionable substitutions and individual errors ended up costing the South London club, as a late flurry from Tottenham saw the home side score three goals in eleven minutes and claim all three points.
Late collapses have become synonymous with Crystal Palace this season, who have conceded nineteen goals in the last fifteen minutes of games (the most of any other Premier League side), and once again Palace hit self-destruct when they had the points in their grasp.
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Confidence is key
Glasner, who was appointed Palace boss just twelve days ago, admitted that he saw some defensive improvements from his side, but ultimately the team didn't show enough over 90 minutes to win the game.
Palace, who struggled to retain the ball for large portions of the game, made the questionable move after 70 minutes to withdraw Adam Wharton, who was dictating a large part of the Eagles' play for Will Hughes. Subsequently, Palace struggled to maintain any kind of foothold in midfield.
"Of course, I saw some improvements in defending today, but also we can be more confident with the ball.
"The possession game was sometimes good, sometimes was okay, but also sometimes we lost the ball too quickly, especially in the second half – we could clear the ball and then after the second, third pass we lost it again, and so most of the game was in our half."
Glasner conceded that to take all three points away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, you need to put in a top-notch performance for the majority of the game, which Palace couldn't quite provide this afternoon.
"I think we could have been a little bit more confident in possession, but then we scored a very nice goal, but, at the end, to win here at Tottenham you must play almost perfectly over the whole distance of the game, and we couldn't do this today and so we have to accept it.
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The Late Late Show
Glasner praised his Palace side for how they performed throughout the majority of the game.
“I think the players did a great job over 60-70 minutes. They stuck to the plan and we defended really well for most of the time.
But the Austrian coach admitted that his side has a problem with conceding late, which predates him as Palace boss and desperately needs fixing.
"Of course, I don't believe in coincidences. If you concede so many goals in the last 15 minutes, we have to work on it, we have to analyse it and improve it, that's the most important thing.
"The players are willing to improve it and we’ve started already, but there's nothing you can improve in two or three days. We will now have one more game against Luton, and then we have three weeks of no games, and we will work on it.”
There have been many suggestions throughout the season that Palace are a team not at peak fitness and therefore struggle to finish games as intensely as they had started.
Glasner acknowledged that after going 1-0 up, he believed his side would walk away from the game with a positive result, but ultimately, a lack of intensity cost him and his Palace side.
“I think today the players did really well over a long time, but obviously we were not able to keep the intensity for the whole game. To win here at Tottenham you have to do this, and you have to be able to do that, and we will work on it.
"They were working hard, they had to run a lot, everybody did what they were able to do. But, again, if you concede nineteen goals in the last 15 minutes, we have to improve that.
"We will work on it, so that we can keep this level high for the whole distance of the game, but today we were disappointed because I had the feeling at this moment, before the 1-1, we could win the game.
"But then it turned. In football, one situation can switch the game and maybe this happened today, but the players did it very well for a long time and, again, we’re disappointed."