by Andy Sloan

Former Crystal Palace star John Salako has tipped Cardiff City to turn things around and said they were unlucky to draw against his old side on Tuesday night.

Salako, 38, who made 222 appearances for the Eagles during his nine years at Selhurst Park, was commentating on the game for Sky Sports and is familiar with Wales after a loan spell at Swansea early in his career.

"The two sides have really struggled for any consistency and form but I think both sides will be alright, they should climb up the table. I thought Palace were very spirited. They came out and did very well. Cardiff never seemed to really get it together. It was a little disjointed, passes going astray but they had all the best chances," said Salako.

Cardiff drew 1-1 after taking an early lead through Captain Darren Purse but Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had the opportunity to seal all three points late on.

"Jimmy had two or three really good chances; one with the head, one at the far post," said Salako. "In the end you probably thought 1-1 was the fair reflection, but Cardiff were really throwing away two points."

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The midfielder, who won five caps for England and was part of Steve Coppell's side that took Manchester United to an FA Cup Final replay in 1990, was pleased with Palace's latest manager, Neil Warnock.

He said: "I thought it was a good performance from Palace. Neil Warnock really went for it, took the bull by the horns, and made the changes at half time. He went for a little more pace, a little bit more direct."

And he agreed with Cardiff boss Dave Jones and the majority of the crowd that Palace's controversial penalty equaliser had been wrongly awarded, saying, "It wasn't a penalty. My first thought was that it was outside the box and he fell into the box."

Worse still for Mason and the Cardiff fans, Salako believes the home side should have had a penalty of their own in the second half.

He said: "The referee, Lee Mason, didn't have the best of games. He missed a lot of things, got the penalty wrong and then McPhail went down in the second half on the edge of the box and I thought it was a little bit rash by Tom Soares. [Mason] could have given that one to level it up but he didn't. Dave Jones won't be too happy with him because I think everything really went against Cardiff today."