Alan Pardew heaped praise on man-of-the-match Marouane Chamakh after he inspired Crystal Palace to victory in a pulsating, goal-laden FA Cup tie at Southampton.
On a day of thrilling ties, this fourth-round clash did not disappoint as Palace twice came from behind to eventually triumph 3-2 at St Mary's.
All five goals came in the first half, with Graziano Pelle opening the scoring after nine minutes -- only for Chamakh to draw parity moments later.
Scott Dann's own goal put Saints back in the driving seat, only for Yaya Sanogo to score his first goal for Palace before Chamakh rounded the goalkeeper to slot home what proved a 39th-minute winner.
Those goals were the Morocco international's first for the club in 12 appearances, capping an impressive return from a six-week injury lay-off.
"I thought he was the best player on the pitch today," Palace boss Pardew said. "When you think about [the] players Southampton have got, that's a real credit to him.
"He has been injured. The guys said to me, 'You're going to get a lift in the team when you see him play.' 'I've not really seen a lot of Chamakh in my time. 'He did particularly well at the back end of last year, but I don't think even then he will put in a performance as good as a today. He really was very good."
Pardew also had praise for on-loan Arsenal striker Sanogo -- "I think Arsene Wenger will be very pleased", he said -- after what was a thrilling cup tie against his former club.
"We worked on our attacking play this week and it was great to see that we had that flamboyance in our play today," the Eagles manager said following a fourth straight win.
"We have good defenders so I was really pleased with the way we went about trying to attack Southampton because they are difficult to attack.
"They keep possession and they kind of get you drawn down. They got the first goal and I thought 'hmmm, this could be difficult', but we got the immediate equaliser, which helped us, I think, and increased our belief.
"Then it really was a great first half. Both teams I thought were terrific and we came out just on the right side of it. 'The second half was different. We locked it up a little bit and had to defend very, very well.
"In terms of a cup tie, I thought it was terrific. Both teams, really, deserved a lot of credit."