Crystal Palace manager Dougie Freedman's weekly column for the Croydon Advertiser

THERE is no getting away from the fact that Tuesday night was bitterly disappointing.

To be so close to getting to a Wembley final but miss out on penalties was tough to take but I think we can feel proud of our efforts and the way we kept going right until the end, especially after we went down to ten men.

I think my players were prepared and up for the challenge, and I felt we came very close. On another night we might well have got over the line.

While we missed out on the final I think we can take some comfort from the fact that we've won a lot of hearts during our run in the competition, and I'm sure even the Cardiff fans would have appreciated the way we battled in extra-time.

It was a great cup tie, my players will be better off for that experience, it was a well-played game, a fantastic game with the support we were both getting and it just wasn't to be.

The players at the end were very down, especially those who had taken penalties in the shoot-out.

I just told them that's what happens in life, never mind on the football field, you have to respond to what's put in front of you and we did that.

Taking a penalty in that situation is a brave thing to do, and we don't blame anyone for missing from the spot. We don't do that at this football club, we win together and we lose together.

We didn't get off to the start we wanted by going behind so early but I thought we made a fantastic response. Of course we were trying to go for a clean sheet, but with Anthony Gardner's own goal it was really backs against the wall, but that's what we do best.

I was also pleased with the way we kept going after Paddy McCarthy was sent off.

We didn't just toss in the towel we didn't look for excuses, we got beaten on penalties by a very, very good team which I think will be very close to getting promotion to the Premiership. Everytime I thought they were going to score we did enough and kept digging in there.

I thought it was a rollercoaster tie in terms of the timing of the goal and the sending off and the penalties. I felt at every stage we showed desire and hunger to keep the ball out of our net and to try and grow into the game, that's what we do best; we defended fantastically well, rode our luck at times, went to penalties, but it just wasn't to be for whatever reason.

The important thing for us now is to pick ourselves up and try and get back to our best for the rest of the league campaign. The Carling Cup has been a distraction and has definitely dampened our results in the league which has resulted in where we are in the table.

But we've still got a lot to look forward to. We've come a long, long way in such a short space of time and I'm proud of the lads. The good thing for myself and my coaches is that we've got Brighton next week, a local derby at home.

I know there is no need to get ourselves up for that game and that game has come up at the right time as far as we are concerned. We had a good night at the Amex earlier in the season and we will be doing our best to put in a similar performance at Selhurst Park next week.