WE have suffered over the last two games and our confidence was a little bit low and it showed in our performance.

Yet we ground out what we needed to get 3-1 up but didn't cope with what Crystal Palace did, which was what you would expect and throw caution to the wind.

Our experienced defenders were out there but didn't use their experience correctly when defending and in the end it has cost us very, very dear. We have conceded two goals in the last three minutes and we have ended up with a point when we should have had three.

When you are not playing well in this division to grind out results is all important and if we had done that today it would have put us back on track. Now we have put ourselves back under pressure for Tuesday's game.

We will put ourselves under pressure for the last few minutes of the game until we stop conceding goals. The next time we get into that position again we are going to have to be stronger and more determined to secure the position we are in and make sure we defend correctly.

Conceding late goals has cost us a lot of points. It started at Gillingham when we were 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go. At Stockport we shot ourselves in the foot again. We got to Watford and never conceded one chance all the game and the referee decided to give them a penalty. Then today we get in the best position we have been in for ages at 3-1 up and switch off on basically what was a very average corner and a very average cross. The opposition score two goals which they shouldn't have done. We haven't defended the position correctly because we have not done our job right.

We had virtually killed them off but we made it too easy for them to come back into the game. When we won the ball we should have played our way out and taken the pressure off ourselves by keeping the ball but we didn't do that. We went on the back foot too much. Instead of closing the ball down and putting pressure on them we started to drop off into our own box and when people start putting crosses into your box they only need maybe one shot to score and we didn't force the opposition out.

Palace didn't do anything other than play basic football which is what you go to when you are struggling. We did that at Watford and played exceptionally well but didn't score from the chances we had and then got punished.

Turning points like Palace achieved today could easily see them on a run up the league. With us it could easily see us on a slide.