Crystal Palace forward Jeffrey Schlupp has revealed the pep-talk he received from manager Patrick Vieira after he climbed off the bench to rescue a point for the side against Aston Villa at the weekend.
The Ghana international was brought on after Aston Villa had taken the lead through Ollie Watkins’ close-range opener.
But it didn’t take long for the 29-year-old to impact the game with the equaliser after Macr Guehi’s headed efort fell to him two yards out.
And the Ghanaian says his boss will be pleased with the outcome after he told him to impact the game.
“I think he’ll be happy with that,” Schlupp said in his post-match interview as quoted by Palace’s official website. “[The instructions were] just to come on, to try and impact the game and I managed to do that straight away.
“It was a bit of instinct. I thought: ‘If I gamble on a second ball it might fall to me’. I think there were maybe two phases in between. I thought: ‘If someone gets a flick on here then maybe I can get in at the back post and I managed to do that.”
Schlupp, who last hit the back of the net in the 1-1 draw against Burnley on February 26, has now scored four top-flight goals from 30 appearances. He opened his account for the campaign against Leicester City on October 3, scoring during a 2-2 draw.
