Pardew praises his team despite FA Cup defeat, Hodgson lowers expectations, Bairstow applauded by captain Cook and a Serbian tennis champ turns 28.
SUNDAY MORNING'S BIG STORIES 1- Alan Pardew says Palace deserved to win as United lift FA Cup
![Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew]()
![England manager Roy Hodgson during training]()
![England's Jonny Bairstow celebrates his century against Sri Lanka at Headingley]()
![Novak Djokovic]()
Alan Pardew has praised his team in the aftermath of their loss to Manchester United in the FA Cup Final. In what was a big occasion for Crystal Palace, they blew a one goal lead to lose the game in extra time.
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew - Reuters
Jason Puncheon found the back for the net for the Eagles in the 78th minute, only for Juan Mata to equalise for United two minutes later. Chris Smalling received a second yellow in extra time which brought United down to ten men, before Jesse Lingard's strike decided the match with ten minutes of time remaining.
Pardew was impressed with the effort of his squad, saying they had fought it out to the end.
"My players gave everything. Everything. And they deserved to win but the game is like that. It's not straightforward."
Pardew was also annoyed with some of the refereeing decisions during the match - and rightly so, judging from the reactions at half-time - but conceded that complaining would be in vain.
"We had a couple of decisions that went against us, big time. Connor [Wickham] was through, Wilfried [Zaha] had a penalty but I'm not going to bleat. It was a great performance from both teams, great final," he said.
"It was going to be a magical moment from them that was going to win it, but it was and it come. Then they just got eight, nine behind the ball and it was difficult for us."
2- Roy Hodgson seeks to spare England squad from weight of expectation
England manager Roy Hodgson has called for perspective on the eve of the Three Lions' first warm-up match against Turkey at Etihad Stadium, claiming that the Euro 2016 squad must not be held accountable for "the sins of the fathers".
Hodgson pointed to the failures of England sides past and was adamant this current team should be judged on it's own merits.
"Maybe it might be the time to leave off these lads a little bit and stop trying to batter them with past failures of previous England teams going back to 1970, to 2014," he told the press.
England manager Roy Hodgson during training - Reuters
"We don't want them to be fearful. This group don't have baggage. They aren't weighed down by the sins of the fathers. That's what our message will be."
Hodgson pointed to the glorification of individuals as a key example of this, citing comparing contemporary England stars with global superstars.
"Before we can really start lifting those players up into that category they have got to start having some of the CVs of players like [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic, [Lionel] Messi, [Sergio] Aguero, [Luis] Suarez, Neymar and [Cristiano] Ronaldo.
"These are people with enormous CVs, enormous records having won things, whereas we are talking about players at the moment who have had a good Premier League season and done well, shown a talent, excited us and we think they are going to be good players."
An outbreak of common sense ahead of England playing a football tournament? Wonders never cease...
3- England captain Alastair Cook praises Bairstow's batting performance
English skipper Alastair Cook has given two thumbs up to his keeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow's performance in the first test victory against Sri Lanka at Headingley.
England's first innings of 298, with Bairstow's contribution of 140 was enough to hold out Sri Lanka, who were skittled twice for poor returns of just 91 and 119. The innings and 88 run victory was capped off with a strong bowling performance by quick Jimmy Anderson taking 5-29 and overall match figures of 10-45.
England's Jonny Bairstow celebrates his century against Sri Lanka at Headingley - Reuters
Cook praised Bairstow, who was named man of the match for his batting performance and work with the gloves that finished with nine dismissals.
"Jonny was batting on a different wicket to the other 21 players in this match. The first time I saw him I thought he would play for England and he'll go from strength to strength.
"Sometimes you take it for granted, but watching Stuart and Jimmy go about their business was a pleasure to captain."
SHARING IS CARING - TODAY'S VIRAL GEMS
Remember folks, managing Watford is for closers only.
SUNDAY'S CAN'T MISS ACTION
- TENNIS - French Open: Day 1 - LIVE ON EUROSPORT 1 from 09:30
Heaps of French Open action on both channels in the morning, but you can catch matches with Nicole Gibbs v Heather Watson, Nikoloz Basilashvili v Kyle Edmund live and exclusive on Eurosport 1.
- CYCLING - Giro d'Italia - Stage 15: Castelrotto to Alpe di Siusi - LIVE ON EUROSPORT 2 from 13:30
Uphill time trial stage should test all here, where stamina and resilience is needed to get through the 10.8km climb. Catch all the action on Eurosport 2 from the afternoon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Happy birthday to Serbian tennis champ Novak Djokovic. The now 28 year old has 64 career titles to his name and a whopping 82.93% winning career record in Grand Slams and ATP World Tour matches. Djokovic has also won the Australian Open six times, Wimbledon three times and the US Open twice.
Novak Djokovic - AFP
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