Yannick Bolasie's early goal in Crystal Palace's 2-1 away win against a 'sleepy' Liverpool nearly destroyed the visitor's game-plan, according to Alan Pardew.
The Crystal Palace boss said he thoroughly enjoyed Sunday's match but admitted that Bolasie's strike after 21 minutes caused his side more issues than he wanted.
"I thought it was terrific Premier League game," Pardew said. "We made a conscious decision to take the game to Liverpool to see if we could catch them sleepy as they had a tough game on Thursday.
"We came here with ambition. The worst thing that happened to us was scoring, we then lost the ambition. Liverpool came on to us. We went toe-to-toe against Manchester United and got a draw, we went toe-to-toe with Liverpool and got the win.
"We got a goal and there was our problem really because then we backed off and let Liverpool start to dominate us and for 15-20 minutes it wasn't really the game-plan.
"Half-time was important for us and it was a great game second half, end-to-end and our ambition was rewarded in terms of the late goal."
Philippe Coutinho equalised for Liverpool just prior to half-time, but Palace defender Scott Dann nodded home in the 82nd minute to hand Pardew's side all three points.
"His [Dann] goal sums him up," Pardew said. "You could see he was going to win that ball, no one was going to stop him and he defends like that.
"I really think he has been underestimated throughout his career and I wouldn't have said that until I managed him.
"Now I manage him I realise how good he is. He can be really proud of his performance. He was superb in everything he did."
The Crystal Palace manager also singled out former Manchester United winger Wilfried Zaha for praise after the match.
"I thought Wilfried Zaha had one of his best games for Crystal Palace," he said. "His defensive work was important too. Wilf had to do a job on Philippe Coutinho and he did that. I was very pleased for him.
"Sometimes it is about our own belief. We have been unlucky in the last few games. We have been good this year and started really well. We need to make sure we capitalise on that.
"I promised the guys an extra day off so fair play to them. They can book some flights now."
Pardew's side have defied all expectations to find themselves in 8th place on the Premier League table after 12 matches.