Crystal Palace hero Andros Townsend: Man City wonder goal 'best of my career'

Andros Townsend heralded his 30-yard wonder volley against Manchester City as the best goal of his career as Crystal Palace stunned the Premier League champions with a 3-2 away win.

Townsend scored one of the goals of the season as Roy Hodgson's inspired Palace came from behind to condemn City to their first league defeat at the Etihad since April.

Townsend struck after Jeffrey Schlupp had cancelled out Ilkay Gundogan's opener on a rain-soaked afternoon. A free-kick won by Wilfried Zaha was lofted into the area and only half cleared by City.

Silva attempted to head away but the ball dropped invitingly towards Townsend around 30 yards out, and he met it with a ferocious volley that flew into the roof of the net.

A penalty from Luka Milivojevic sealed victory although Kevin De Bruyne's cross-cum-shot gave City, who also hit the post through Leroy Sane, late hope.

Speaking after the win, Townsend told the BBC: "It sat up perfectly for me. I knew I couldn't take a touch as City would have been on me and on the counter, and as soon as it left my foot I knew it had a good chance.

"It's definitely the best goal of my career, against the best side I've ever played."

Palace boss Roy Hodgson hailed his side's performance, saying the result was more than he could have hoped for.

He said: "Getting something from the game was always going to be a tough ask because they have such a strong team and such a good bench.

"We certainly didn't come up here thinking we had no chance or this was the kind of game we had to write off.

"But what we did think was that unless we produce a performance of that quality, discipline and workrate then we wouldn't have much of a chance.

"Luckily today the goals fell for us. After going 1-0 down we were able to score two good goals and that gives you something to cling on to and makes life harder for the opposition."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.