Speaking to Palace TV after scoring the winner against Manchester United Under-21s, Jadan Raymond revealed how the side sees itself and its competition.
“We don’t see Manchester United ahead of us anymore,” Explained Raymond. “We feel like we’re at the same level or above them now because we beat them consistently. There's no big club mentality anymore, we know that we’re just as good or better than them.
Indeed, Palace Under-21s are now unbeaten in five games against Man Utd since becoming a Premier League 2 side. Raymond scored in the 98th minute to get Palace’s 2023/24 campaign off to a winning start.
He attributes his late goal to the side’s commitment in pre-season: “Pre-season has been really good, out in America getting the minutes in, it’s prepared us well to come back fit [for the start of the season].
“All the hard work in pre-season really paid off today, because we managed to outrun them [at the end].
“It was really good [to score the winner late on]. We fought to the end, I was exhausted in my celebration! It was worth it in the end.
“It was very back and forth, but we knew that we had the strongest mentality to take them to the end like we always do.”
Finally, the U21s have been drawn against tough opposition in the EFL Trophy and in the Premier League International Cup, though Raymond relishes the challenge: “We love playing in the EFL Cup against first-teams and against international teams in the Premier League International Cup - we’re looking forward to all of the games.”
