Dover midfielder Nicky Deverdics was not about to pull any punches after his side crashed out of the FA Cup on Sunday.

The former Newcastle United trainee was finding it hard to contain his disappointment and his frustration after the 4-0 loss.

Deverdics, who scored Whites’ opening goal in this season’s FA Cup campaign, the winner in the 1-0 fourth qualifying round replay against Eastbourne Borough, said: “I just cannot believe the way we played to be honest.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice at all.

“We were talked up on TV and in the media of having a real chance of providing an upset in the lead-up to the game given how we have been playing of late – that never looked like happening the way we started.

“We conceded way too early to give ourselves any hope to be honest.

“Falling behind also caused us to panic a bit.

“When we had the ball we couldn’t keep hold of it and when we did, we gave it away far too often.

“You cannot afford to do that against any side, let alone a Premier League side, and Crystal Palace punished us for it – they rarely gave the ball away.

“It meant we ended up trying to do things we wouldn’t normally do and it didn’t work.

“But to their (Crystal Palace) credit, they did a real professional job on us because it did have the potential to be a banana skin for them.

"Unfortunately we didn’t take the opportunity to prove so.”