James McArthur knows there are fine margins between defeat and victory, and none more so than in Crystal Palace’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday.

The Premier League reverse, Palace’s fourth on the bounce, could have been different had the Scottish midfielder made the most of a golden opportunity with the scores locked at 1-1.

However, the Scot, who was making his 30th appearance in Palace colours, missed the chance and United went on to claim the three points.

He said: “I should do better with the chance. I just got it too tight with my body, I didn’t shift it as far as I would have liked to on my left foot to try and get a bit more power on it.

Hitman stares four defeats in the face and sees the positivity

PICTURE GALLERY: Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United

“It’s unfortunate that we were not been clinical enough, but I thought the second half we were excellent.

“In the first half, maybe we sat off of them a wee bit. It just went against us, which is a shame, but we’ve got ourselves back in the game and we’ve had a few chances.

“Everyone’s so down on the fact that we put so much effort in and we’ve played very well in the second half - it looked like we were going to go and get the three points.”

Your Local Guardian:

So close: Yannick Bolasie rues a missed chance against Manchester United

He added: “Even though we’ve lost the game, it’s fine margins. When you’re not playing very well and losing matches, that’s something to worry about, but if you’re losing like that and if you keep doing those things we did today then you’ll win more than you lose.

“We are learning - we need to keep learning against these big teams and need to take our chances.

“Myself and Glenn [Murray] have had great opportunities and if we take one of them then it’s a completely different game.”