CRYSTAL Palace midfielder James McArthur has joked he didn't mean to send his looping header into the back of the net to give the Eagles the lead on Saturday.
The Scotsman grabbed his first goal for the club against Stoke City after 11 minutes, getting on the end of Yannick Bolasie's cross.
And he was lost for words slightly when asked what he remembered of the moment he made a connection and if he meant it.
"Yeah (McArthur shakes head) - I think it hit my shoulder instead!", said McArthur.
"It was a great ball from Yala. He's been mixing it up, which is good for midfielders arriving in the box where sometimes he's getting by his man and sometimes he's just getting it in the box.
"That's great and hard for the opposition because they don't know what's happening if he's beating the man or getting a cross in.
"It was nice to score but I would like to add more goals to my game. I think I can at Palace, especially when we're playing three in midfield where it gives me the licence to get forward.
"Joe Ledley is the same, he wants to add and he's getting forward. As a team we want to add goals throughout and we want to keep pushing ourselves.
Peter Crouch equalised within 90 seconds to cancel McArthur's opener, and the midfielder admits Palace were caught off guard seconds after they nearly doubled the lead.
"That was really disappointing for us," he said. "Joe Ledley and I maybe pushed too much forward to get a second goal straight away, and they may not have expected us to do that so quickly.
"It has countered against us but we move on."
And McArthur was happy to play the same formation utilised against Tottenham Hotspur the previous weekend.
"It's been working well so I don't know why we would change really," he said.
"It worked again and we had chances, but we couldn't take them."
By Mark Ritson (Twitter @MR_LWMedia)
