SELHURST PARK, London -- Jose Mourinho admitted Manchester United were "lucky" to fight back from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace.
The United manager branded the performance a "remarkable comeback but with mistakes" after second-half goals from Chris Smalling, Romelu Lukaku and a stoppage-time winner from Nemanja Matic sealed a 3-2 victory.
Mourinho said he could not reveal what he said to his players at half-time after a dismal first-half performance because his language was too colourful for television.
But after the final whistle, he praised the fighting spirit of his players who came from behind for the second game in a row after the 2-1 win over Chelsea last weekend.
Mourinho told a news conference: "A remarkable comeback but with mistakes, fantastic comeback but mistakes.
"I think the first goal is a bad goal. Then we concede the goal that is good to show the kids in the academies around the country, to see top teams and top players can concede silly goals.
"But then the attitude was fantastic, the intensity, the dynamic, the risk and then you need that little bit of luck to win in the last minute, but I think I would say we deserve because the dominance in that last half hour was huge."
Mourinho blasted his players for allowing Patrick van Aanholt to score Palace's second minutes after half-time.
He called the goal "childish" after the defender was allowed to sprint clear to score past David De Gea.
It left Mourinho with mixed feeling after the final whistle, despite the result nudging United back into second in the table and opening up a nine-point gap over fifth-placed Chelsea in the race for the Champions League places.
He added: "I'm not happy but people at home in front of the screen enjoyed it.
"Against a team that needs points like they do, it is very, very hard so we kept the faith and kept the belief, made changes, the players accept the risk and then I have to admit we were a little bit lucky."