Alan Pardew was left seething at Christian Benteke after accusing the Liverpool striker of diving to help his team to claim a dramatic late victory at Selhurst Park.
Pardew, whose Crystal Palace side have failed to win in 12 Barclays Premier League matches, were left fuming at the decision to award Benteke a penalty deep into stoppage time. Andre Marriner, the referee, made the call on the advice of his assistant, Scott Ledger, who raised his flag after Damien Delaney’s knee appeared to clip the heel of Benteke inside the penalty area. Benteke, who had entered the contest only as an 80th minute substitute, fell to the ground in rather dramatic fashion before picking himself up and rolling home the penalty with supreme confidence.
“If you’re the referee and see the centre half pulling out of the challenge, you don’t give the penalty,” Pardew said. “I don’t think he did. The linesman assumes that little touch is a penalty. He makes the most of it. If you think that touch affects the fall and the way he lands, then you really need to be consulted.
“The touch doesn’t warrant the dive he makes, and it’s the dive that makes the linesman’s mind up. It’s a worrying issue in the game. I’ve heard Jamie Carragher saying there was contact, he was within his rights to go down. Jamie Carragher is saying that? He’s an ex-pro — come on. If that warrants a collapse like that then wow, we need to say: ‘Come on’.”
Benteke, who had not scored since the end of December, had already gone close on a couple of occasions before going down under the challenge of Delaney deep into stoppage time.
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The Palace defender was adamant that he had not touched his opponent but the Liverpool striker felt differently. “I think he touched me otherwise I don’t go down,” Benteke said. “The referee knows better than us and he took the right decision. You have to be ready when the manager needs you and I tried to do my best today.”
Benteke’s 96th-minute winner came after a period in which Liverpool had dominated despite being reduced to ten men after James Milner had been dismissed after collecting two yellow cards. They had been afforded a route back into the contest by a horrendous goalkeeping mistake by Alex McCarthy, whose slip allowed Roberto Firmino to cancel out Joe Ledley’s strike with 18 minutes remaining. McCarthy, in a first appearance since September, appeared to be in little danger when Ledley rolled the ball back to him but the goalkeeper lost his footing and gifted Firmino the opportunity to equalise.
For a team who had not managed a home victory since December 12, it was the moment the fragility of their confidence was laid bare. “It affected us and made us nervous,” Pardew said of McCarthy’s error. “We haven’t won for a while, and that compounded it. When you’re struggling for a win in the league, then you have to react well to that.
“One or two didn’t, if I’m honest. That’s human nature to a certain extent, but also something I need to eradicate. The way that the game unfolded was not good for us.”
Pardew, while clearly angered by the officials, also laid some of the blame at the feet of his players who failed to negotiate the final period of the game in the manner he had expected. Playing against ten men for more than half an hour after the dismissal of Milner and leading courtesy of Ledley’s goal, Palace allowed Liverpool to wrestle the initiative away from them as the visitors excelled despite their numerical disadvantage.
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“It was really disappointing after we scored,” Pardew said. “Up to that period we were great, as good as we’ve been. I’m frustrated with the referee and with us at how we didn’t push on, and with the substitutes who should have done better, and myself. There’s nothing we can do about it, about the penalty or about the result.
“But we can put right that last 15 minutes. We never pushed on, that was the biggest down side.”