Pierre Sage insisted Crystal Palace's victory against Nottingham Forest was not about revenge over Oliver Glasner upon his return to Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Glasner returned to Palace for the first time since leaving the Eagles at the end of last season to join Forest, but the Austrian watched on as his team were beaten 3-1.
Dan Ndoye had given Forest the lead after just three minutes, and though the visitors dominated most of the first half, they found themselves behind going into the break.
Daichi Kamada and Jefferson Lerma scored twice in eight minutes at the end of the first half, with Yeremy Pino sealing Sage's first league win in charge just before the hour.
For the first time in 13 attempts, Palace beat Forest in the Premier League (D8 L4 prior) – the Eagles have now beaten all 35 sides that they've faced 5+ times in the competition.
It was a result that moved Palace up to 12th in the Premier League on seven points, though Sage said his team's victory was not about getting one over the Eagles' former boss.
"It's not about revenge, a confirmation or something like this for every individual player," Sage told Sky Sports.
"It's only about one game in a big series. The game is not against Oliver. The game is against Nottingham and that's the most important thing.
"We just have to be respectful with [Glasner], with what he did here. He helped me a lot because this team knows and is able to do a lot of things, and I have to thank him for that.
"It's not normal to concede too many chances as we conceded today. We had a problem in the first half, especially in the area of Ndoye. We have to be more efficient in one-vs-one situations when we defend.
"We have to be honest with what happened on the pitch. Everybody is aware of that, every player is aware of that, but I want to underline one thing: they give their life on the pitch."
“Just one of those days man!”
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) October 11, 2026
It was also a show of great resilience from Palace, who have now recovered more points from losing positions than any other side in the Premier League (six).
Forest, meanwhile, suffered their first away league defeat to Palace since December 2003. The Tricky Trees had previously remained unbeaten across their prior nine visits to Selhurst Park (W3 D6), while also winning their last four Premier League matches in London before Sunday's loss.
"I think in total we played our best performance in the entire season," Glasner told Sky Sports, with Forest now just two points above the relegation zone.
"But again, if you don't score from all these chances, there's nobody to blame, because the effort was massive. I'm 100 per cent encouraged by this.
"Today I saw many positive performances, but it's not shown by the result, because we missed the most important thing: scoring goals in the right moments."
Despite the defeat, Forest created eight big chances in total, with only Blackburn Rovers (against Newcastle United in February 2012) having recorded more in a Premier League defeat (since 2010-11).
"I also want to say a huge thank you to the Crystal Palace supporters for this great reception," Glasner added. "I didn't know what I could expect, but it just shows the wonderful memories we created together here."
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