Neil Warnock was full of admiration for his players on Saturday after Crystal Palace beat Derby County 1-0 at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

It was the perfect response to last week’s 4-0 humiliation by Scunthorpe United and Warnock, who called the seven days before the match the longest of his life, was delighted to get back to winning ways.

“I thought my lads were fantastic,” he said.

“If you look at Derby’s bench it’s better than the team we had that started.

“We gave absolutely everything and I am as proud as punch of my lads.

“I thought the team that wanted to win it won it.

“The fans got behind us too after the longest week in my life and I am sure the fans were just relieved to see a performance like that.

“You only start by getting a clean sheet and we talked about that all week.

“We still haven’t scored in the first half since the Millennium but it is a long slog.

“The lads’ attitude was outstanding though and I cannot fault any of them.

“They’ve given me everything they can.”

Julian Speroni made two super saves in the second half, but was lucky to still be on the pitch when he was only given a yellow card for handling outside the area early on.

“I thought the referee used common sense with the goalie,” said Warnock.

“He is wide of the goal and Vaughan wasn’t necessarily going to get a touch and I don’t think it was a goalscoring opportunity to be honest.

“I thought Derby were very fortunate they didn’t have 10 men after Jake Livermore’s tackle on Darren Ambrose.

“I thought it was deliberately late and over the top, everything we are told is a red card.”