Crystal Palace boss Peter Taylor has backed goalkeeper Julian Speroni to emerge stronger from the howler that gifted south London bragging rights to Charlton Athletic on Saturday.

The Argentine custodian rushed out to deal with a hopeful long-ball in the 74th minute - only for substitute Svetoslav Todorov to nip in and score the only goal of the game.

Thinking he had sufficient time to deal with the hopeful punt up field, the former Dundee goalkeeper shouted to tell his defenders he was coming to deal with the danger - but instead his misjudgement handed the Bulgarian international the chance to secure victory for his side and condemn Palace to their second successive defeat.

Speroni luckily escaped a red card against Ipswich Town last Sunday after handling outside the box - and many Palace supporters will tell you Saturday's clanger was an accident waiting to happen.

However, Taylor jumped to his goalkeepers defence despite admitting his error cost them dearly against Alan Pardew's side.

The Palace chief said: " I'm disappointed to lose - we gave everything.

"We messed up for the goal - big time.

"The goalkeeper shouted for the ball so our centre-half left it and if the keeper comes out for it he's got to claim it.

"People make mistakes and people then bounce back from them and that's what we have to do. Julian's been excellent from the end of last season to the start of this season.

"He's been as safe as houses. But unfortunately he's made an error.

He added: "It's hard for Jules to except but I'm sure he will bounce back."

Taylor made one change from the side that started in the defeat against Ipswich with Jeff Hughes making his first competitive start for the Selhurst Park side in place of the injured Stuart Green, while new loan signing Besian Idrizaj took his place on the bench alongside the returning Paul Ifill.

And in a tense start to the south London derby it was the home side that carved out the first decent opportunity after good work from Clinton Morrison and Tom Soares down the right saw the latter's cross volleyed goal wards by James Scowcroft - but the striker was denied his fourth goal of the season after a good save from Nicky Weaver.

Summer signing Chris Iwelumo and Darren Ambrose both went close to giving the away side the lead before the end of a lacklustre first period.

Thankfully, the Palace faithful did have something to get excited about during the break after former Scotland international Paul Dickov was introduced to the crowd after finalising his loan move from Manchester City moments before Friday's transfer deadline.

But that was about as good as it got for the home support.

Iwelumo again had a chance to give Pardew's side the lead on 61 minutes but he could only blaze Zheng Zhi's cut back wide from 10 yards - however, the vocal travelling support were not made to wait much longer for their opening after Speroni's blunder handed the Addicks victory on a plate.

Idrizaj came close to marking his Palace debut with an 85th minute equaliser but his downward header was pushed behind by Weaver - before former MK Dons striker Izale McLeod missed a golden opportunity to put the game to bed five minutes into stoppage time.