Crystal Palace boss Neil Warnock heaped praised on his defeated stars on Monday night.

Despite losing 3-1 at home to Sunderland – a side that had conceded 10 goals in the previous two games – Warnock pointed to referee decisions that did not go Eagles’ way.

However, away from his disappointment with the officials, he said: “I think we put a real good shift in tonight and I was really proud of the way we played and on another night one or two things [would] go for us.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t won the game.”

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He added: “It hurts like hell and the players, it hurts them as well.

“But we have got to regroup and we’ve to play ourselves through this.

“At the moment we think everything is against us but we've got to somehow regroup.

“We were a little bit probably naive at times, we panicked a little bit.

“But they are a great bunch of lads. They couldn’t give me any more effort. It’s so cruel, but football is cruel.”