September 26 2010

George Burley

George Burley has demanded an improvement from Crystal Palace after the 5-0 thrashing at Derby.

He said: "We're struggling away from home, but we've done well at home. It was very disappointing, we've got to be stronger, but we have a lot of young players in the side who are finding it hard away from home.

"We need to stand up and be counted and be more difficult to beat. We've got to be tougher, stronger and most important of all we've got to be disciplined."

The Eagles lost James Vaughan to a red card in the 20th minute and put in a shocking defensive display for the rest of the game.

"James Vaughan is a first class striker so to lose him from the game was a massive blow," said Burley.

"I think it was a striker's challenge. You can't argue with the decision and we won't be appealing against the sending off. He apologised, the ball was there to be won but he dived in.

"We started the second half well today but then a cross hits a defender and we are 3-0 down. These things go against you when you are away from home and the confidence drains a little bit. The next away game is at Cardiff so we must be better than we were."

Derby coach Johnny Metgod said: "It was a very good performance but I think we've had similar performances in the previous seven games we've played.

"That might sound strange because it wasn't the same result, but we played really, really good stuff and we just didn't get the three points we deserved because we were defending sloppy and that was the thing that was better."