KEITH Millen described Crystal Palace's performance in the London derby against West Ham United as "lacklustre" and "flat".
Palace trailed 2-0 to the Hammers going into the break after some sloppy defending which left the caretaker boss frustrated.
"First half was disappointing in that we never really got going," he said. "It was our first home game, good atmosphere, the expectation was there and we were flat.
"We never really got any tempo to our pressing and we allowed West Ham to take control of the game.
"We had a couple of chances before they scored where we could have took the lead but in general we were lacklustre."
Marouane Chamakh scored early into the second half which saw Palace begin to take a foothold of the game but things quickly turned sour when Carlton Cole scored West Ham's third.
Millen added: "We got into them at half-time and I was pleased with their response second half.
"We got the goal to make it 2-1 and then it was game on and then I thought we could get something out of it.
"All of a sudden the atmosphere changed and the fans got behind us. We were on the front foot but unfortunately we've conceded another goal from a set piece, that's really killed the game."
This was Millen's second game in charge of Palace this season, having led them in their narrow defeat to Arsenal last weekend, and the interim manager was quick to stress that there were no excuses for today's poor performance.
"I'm in charge of them, I don't like to make excuses and I won't hide behind excuses," he said. "It's been a tough week for the players.
"I've tried to play it down before (that Tony leaving has had an impact) and in training they've been fine but when you come to match day you are never quite sure how they are going to respond.
"Obviously we lose Joe Ledley in warm-up which was a blow to us. It's going against us at the moment a little bit.
"Being in charge, I don't want to make excuses but that wasn't good enough first half."
