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Newcastle 1 - Crystal Palace 0: Papiss Cisse leaves it very late to gun down Eagles
NEWCASTLE assistant manager John Carver has backed striker Papiss Cisse to go on a scoring run after heading the Magpies to a last-gasp victory over Crystal Palace.
The Senegal international struck with his first goal since January 4 and just his second of the season in the Barclays Premier League when he dispatched substitute Hatem Ben Arfa’s 94th-minute cross in front of owner Mike Ashley.
Cisse, who passed up two good opportunities during last weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Fulham, had earlier been denied three times by Palace keeper Julian Speroni and missed his kick from point-blank range seconds before his big chance arrived.
Carver, deputising for the banned Alan Pardew, said: “When Hatem came inside I thought he was going to shoot, but he had the sense to stick it on Papiss’s head and he probably took the hardest chance, because it came quickly.
“There’s nobody more pleased for him than me.
“He’s not going missing, he’s not hiding and sometimes you can when you are lacking in confidence.”
“He is a confidence-type player and you know what strikers are like, if they get one goal, sometimes they get two, three, four goals.”
Palace boss Tony Pulis was a disappointed man as he left St James’ Park, claiming his side should have had a free-kick seconds before Cisse struck and that the goal had come after stoppage time had elapsed.
Pulis said: “The disappointing this is, if you look at the video, we thought we should have had a free-kick outside their box with a minute to go – well, there was 20 seconds to go – and then they come down and they score, which is over time.”
MATCH FACTS
MAN OF THE MATCH: JULIAN SPERONI – the Palace keeper frustrated Newcastle and was very unlucky to be on the losing side.
NEWCASTLE: Krul; Mbiwa, Dummett, Williamson, Coloccini; Tioté, Sissoko (Marveaux 88), Anita, Gouffran (Sh Ameobi 76); Cissé, de Jong (Ben Arfa 59)
PALACE: Speroni; Mariappa, Ward, Dann, Delaney; Puncheon, Dikgacoi, Jedinak, Ledley, Bolasie (Bannan 67); Jerome (Murray 76).
Ref: L Probert
Att: 51,588