Crystal Palace 2 United 1

United boss Paul Buckle was pleased with his team's performance at Crystal Palace in Tuesday night's Carling Cup match. United put on a particularly strong second half display which delighted the manager: 'I thought we played exceptionally well, we showed great character to come back from going a goal behind and it was just a shame we couldn't hold on for maybe ten minutes after we scored. We probably tried to over-play a little instead of putting the ball in behind for a while and take the pressure off ourselves but it was a very good game of football.

'We are enjoying our football at the moment, I enjoyed watching my team tonight but Palace are a good side, I have a lot of respect for Neil Warnock and they deserved to go through. The scoreline suggests a tight game and it was decided by a penalty, Palace know they have been involved in a game and our supporters came to watch their team have a go. We have made the step up into the League and I thought tonight we showed that we are worthy of that place.

'It was physical game and we have a few bumps in the changing room but that is how we like it. We had Mansell and Hargreaves missing and I'm hoping to have them both back for the weekend. If they aren't ready we still have enough players in the squad to cope and you saw tonight that some of them deserve to be playing. I'm never afraid if we lose one or two to injury, I have plenty of belief in all the players here.'