March 2 2011

Crystal Palace

Jermaine Easter is determined to win a starting place in the Crystal Palace team after banging in his first goal for the club.

The 29-year-old has had to make do with being stuck on the bench since joining from MK Dons in the January transfer window with competition for places up front at a premium.

But he showed manager Dougie Freedman what he is capable of on Saturday when he came on as a substitute to score Palace's third goal in the 3-3 draw with Reading.

His strike was a well taken volley and now the Welsh international hopes to get further opportunities to shine for the Eagles.

"I've been disappointed not to play to be fair, because the games I have played in although I haven't scored I've felt sharp and felt like I was a threat," he said.

"Strikers are judged on goals and as long as I'm scoring goals hopefully that will be enough to keep me in the team from now on.

"You always want to get off the mark at a new club and I was happy I could do that against Reading, it was a decent goal as well."

He added: "When it went in I thought we could have held on for the win but it wasn't to be. It was a bit of a crazy game, we should have been home and dry after 30 minutes, we started like a house on fire but they got back into it and in the end we were a bit disappointed to only take a point.

"Reading are up there and when you look at it a draw is a decent result, but our home form has been so good and we've been playing so well at Selhurst and then to be 2-0 up and only end 3-3 it is disappointing."