Iron boss Nigel Adkins refused to blame the officials for his side's 2-1 home defeat against Crystal Palace.

He felt referee Paul Tierney 'harshly' sent off Marcus Williams for a professional foul while Scunthorpe were one goal down, but the United chief says the fact that his side failed to take earlier chances is what ultimately cost them.

Darren Ambrose gave the Eagles the lead just after the hour mark after the hosts had bossed play up to then.

David Mirfin equalised with six minutes left to hand the Iron hope that they might earn a point, but Neil Danns scored in the final minute of stoppage time to give his team victory.

"At the end of the day we have to rue the chances we missed in the first half," said Adkins, speaking on The Iron Player.

"The game should have been out of sight by then.

"Palace played a very direct style of football, there were 23 fouls against us in the game, which is more than normal.

"The game plan was to try and stop us playing quick football and that worked a treat for them because the game was stop-start all the way through.

"That was disappointing from our point of view because we couldn't get a flow to the game.

"Having said that, we gave ourselves good opportunities in the first half but didn't capitalise on them.

"All week we talked about how one set-play would provide them with a big threat and we had to be tuned into it.

"We didn't react to the danger of the corner taker getting on the end of a second ball. We didn't close them down enough and that put them in front.

"David Mirfin got us back into the game. We played with two wingers but never really got the ball wide enough.

"At 1-1 we could have easily sat back and defended with a 4-4-1.

"We played two up front with Paul Hayes in the hole as we tried to get a victory.

"They scored at the death though and we couldn't reply."

See much more from Nigel Adkins, David Mirfin and Neil Warnock on The Iron Player.