Palace's season pleases Freedman (From Wandsworth Guardian)

Palace's season pleases Freedman

12:20pm Monday 30th April 2012 in npower Championship Table & Results By Graham Moody, Sports Reporter

Dougie Freedman looked back on Crystal Palace's season and declared it a fantastic achievement after they finished 17th in the Championship.

The Eagles were flying high in the league in the early stages of the campaign and had supporters dreaming of a play-off berth until a run of one win in 12 games saw them slip down the table.

Palace were also a penalty shoot out away from reaching the Carling Cup final and academy products Kyle de Silva, Matthew Parsons, Ibra Sekajja and Jonny Williams all stepped up to first team action - joining fellow graduates Nathaniel Clyne, Wilfried Zaha and Sean Scannell.

"There are so many experts out there that tell you how it should be done and what you should be doing," said Freedman.

"I had a plan at the beginning of the season and it was to take this club up to the next level in terms of not fighting relegation and we did that with 10 games to go.

"That gave me the opportunity to blood a few young players and get them more experience.

"We had a fantastic cup run and when I look back I am very proud of young players getting produced.

"We have produced this season in Wilfried Zaha the best player in the Championship and next season we will do it with Jonathan Williams and the season after that with Kyle de Silva.

"I set out to get the club to safety, have a better time than we have been having, have a good cup run and produce young players which was fantastic."