May 7 2006

Iain Dowie

Iain Dowie blamed a mad minute for Palace's play-off nightmare.

Dowie's side face an almost impossible task to reach the play-off final after goals from Marlon King, Ashley Young and Matthew Spring earned Watford a 3-0 first leg win.

The Eagles boss admitted his players never recovered from going a goal down soon after interval, despite dominating the first half.

Dowie is under no illusions about the size of the task facing his team and he said: "If this were a poker hand, you would not bet too heavily on it.

"We have to go to Vicarage Road and win, but whether we can win by enough is another matter."

"We had a mad minute after half-time when we conceded a foolish goal, and from then on we were chasing the game.

"Watford's second goal from Ashley Young was a great free-kick, but after that we lost our team discipline."