ADRAIN Mariappa believes the Eagles were unfortunate not to earn a draw at Manchester City on Saturday.

The 27-year-old was in fine form along with the rest of the Palace defence as they frustrated the Premier league leaders for more than an hour before being undone by an Edin Dzeko goal.

And Mariappa thinks Palace should have secured a share of the spoils for their commitment and concentration at the Etihad.

“We are disappointed to not come away with a point and a clean sheet,” he said.

“They had a lot of possession and that was the way it was going to be coming here.

“We were putting our bodies on the line, defending for our lives and had some good chances ourselves, but it wasn’t to be.”

Manuel Pellegrini was forced into a double substitution just after half-time, bringing Alvaro Negredo and Samir Nasri off the bench to try and break Palace down.

City had been scoring for fun at home on their way to nine straight wins, but a resilient Eagles side gave them one of their biggest tests at the Etihad this season.

“They have been averaging four goals a game at home and I’m sure they would have been expecting to wipe the floor with us,” Mariappa said.

“Come 60 minutes when it was still 0-0 they thought ‘we have to change something’ because we were defending well.

“In games like that there is a lot to do.

“It’s more about concentration than anything and staying mentally at it.

“All the lads were terrific. We will take a lot of positives out of this game and confidence is sky high.”

After falling out of favour, Mariappa has forced his way back into the Palace first team and made the right-back position his own.

And Mariappa hopes to be a part of Tony Pulis’ plans for the foreseeable future, even with the transfer window just around the corner.

He said: “I want to be playing every week but it’s all about the team and to win games and to stay in this league.

“I came out of the team, was patient and worked hard.

“The Premier League is all about having a squad, everybody is going to be used.

“Injuries happen throughout the season and everyone has to be ready.

“As players we can’t foresee what is going to happen.

“We have to take care of what we do day to day and try and make sure we are in the manager’s thoughts come January.”

Follow us on Twitter @NewsShopperSprt