South African midfielder Kagisho Dikgacoi's solitary goal six minutes from time secured a first win for Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park since October,
"It's always going to be a tight affair down here, they don't give much away," the Blues boss said after the match.
"But in the last 20 minutes I still thought we would get a draw at least. It could have gone either way.
"We have gone through a lot of games in a short period of time, but these are the things we need to get on with.
"Over the 90 minutes I thought we deserved to get more out of the game. But we didn't defend their opportunity well enough."