The Advertiser would like to welcome Palace supporter Benjamin Watts to our pool of online fan columnists.For his first column, Benjamin assesses Saturday's defeat at Hull City and the international break which is now upon us…
Having beaten both Everton and Leicester City in previous weeks, losing 2-0 away to Hull City was certainly not the result manager Neil Warnock would have wanted heading into the international break.
Previously unbeaten in his second reign at Selhurst Park, Warnock was out-manoeuvred tactically by his opposite number Steve Bruce as Palace succumbed to our third defeat of the season.
Mohamed Diame's header on the hour mark was a fairly soft goal to concede, while Nikica Jelavic's finish in the 89th-minute was merely the result of having throwing men forward in a desperate attempt to salvage something from the game.
No football fan likes losing, but defeat is particularly tough to take against a team arguably on a par with your own team.
In addition, losing to a side managed by Steve Bruce is another reason this weekend's defeat was such a disappointing one.
Palace beat the Tigers home and away last season, so failing to get a result this time around represents the first real setback of Warnock's second tenure.
The manner of the defeat was also hard to comprehend. Hull might have managed 15 attempts on goal, but only two were on target – and they both ended up in the back of the net.
Palace by comparison created 11 chances, with also two on target. Against Leicester we managed six shot on target from 16 attempts, while against Everton all three shots on goal ended up in the net. It was clearly an uncharacteristic display.
Palace have to be better prepared for such contests as the season goes on, for some teams will now realise if their defence sit deep and don't allow our wingers space to run into, suddenly our quick counter-attacking game plan becomes neutralised.
The international break will give Warnock time to sit back and reflect on his first month in charge.
Overall it has been a marked success, with just Saturday's defeat and the League Cup loss to at home to Newcastle providing any cause for concern.
But with Chelsea at home our next opponents, a significantly better performance will be required if we are to repeat our astonishing feat of beating Jose Mourinho's men, as we did under Tony Pulis at Selhurst Park last season.
Let's hope Diego Costa has a tight hamstring for that one...
