Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson hailed an “excellent” performance following his side’s 3-0 Carabao Cup third-round win over West Brom at The Hawthorns.
Palace secured their success thanks to a brace from Andros Townsend either side of a strike from Patrick Van Aanholt.
Townsend opened the scoring in stunning style from 30 yards after only six minutes, Van Aanholt doubled their advantage in the 76th minute before Townsend sealed the win nine minutes from time with another classy finish.
Former Albion boss Hodgson, who made eight changes to his side, said: “I must say that I thought it was a really good team performance.
“I thought that we were excellent in every aspect to the game. It is not often that you can say that as a coach.
“I would find it hard to find any fault in our performance. I thought our defending was excellent and our attacking play was sometimes of a really, really good class.
“It got us three goals but it could so easily have got us more.
“It is good to win games and it is good to win them away from home. Everything about the performance was just what I wanted.
“Our message to the players was very simple that this was a great opportunity for the players to stake a claim and for us to advance in the competition.
“It would be dishonest of me to say that we see the competition as a priority but we see it as a competition we will take very seriously.”