Alan Pardew praises Joe Ledley's character after Crystal Palace victory

Alan Pardew praised Joe Ledley's character after he recovered from gifting Sunderland a lead to spark Crystal Palace's 3-2 comeback win.

The Wales midfielder played a slack pass into the path of Jermain Defoe after goalkeeper Steve Mandanda played a low ball out to him.

Defoe consequently scored the opener at the Stadium of Light before getting another goal in the second half.

Ledley pulled one back a minute later, however, and that was the precursor for further strikes from James McArthur and Christian Benteke which gave the visitors a 3-2 success.

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Pardew said: "Joe's like that, he's very conscientious. We were playing some terrific stuff, asking the keeper to thread balls in there was dangerous.

"We couldn't afford to do it in the second half and I made that point at half-time but we were still going to do it going forward.

"Okay, Joe made an error on it - he could just have turned the other way and we'd have been at them.

"But the way he finished was typical of Joe. He has that spirit and character that we've all seen from him with Wales.

"This game takes away from you a lot of the time but it does give back to you.

"Last year we came here and I thought we deserved to win but [Fabio] Borini smashes one in at the end (to ensure a 2-2 draw) so it was kind of rough justice for us today.

"I thought we were excellent throughout the game. It was disappointing to be 2-0 behind after the way we played but we wouldn't give in, we wouldn't let it rest. We scored three quality goals."

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Benteke's winner was his second goal since his summer move from Liverpool and Pardew was happy both with his impact and that of substitute Zeki Fryers, who set up McArthur.

He added: "Christian had a moment just before the goal and I'm not sure if it was handball but it looked like he'd got inside the centre half.

"He's always a threat, of course. He had a couple of chances today and it was a great delivery and a clinical finish.

"I was more pleased for Zeki Fryers. His first touch was a great ball. He's battled his way back into the squad.

"From that moment on I felt we had a great chance to win. It's a great day for us - we think we've got a good side and we showed it today."