Crystal Palace 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers: Diogo Jota's late goal rescues point for visitors

Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo says his team's dramatic draw at Crystal Palace is the "starting point" for their Premier League recovery.

Wolves appeared set for a fourth consecutive defeat across all competitions until Diogo Jota's stoppage-time goal rescued a point.

Despite the draw, they remain 19th and remain winless after six top-flight matches but the nature of their fightback - completed in the 96th minute and made more difficult by Romain Saiss's dismissal for two yellow cards - has given Nuno optimism.

"This is football. We have the spirit, the heart and the character to believe until the end," said Nuno, whose side have regular Thursday night Europa League matches adding to their fixture list this season.

"The boys were running up and down and tired. The growing of the team relies on these kind of aspects. We are in the situation where we play Thursday and Sunday."

"This is a starting point. What we did in the first half, lets try to do over and over again."

Leander Dendoncker's own goal had put Palace in front, with the unfortunate Belgian midfielder diverting Joel Ward's wayward shot past Rui Patricio.

But Wolves, who enjoyed the better of the first half with Dendoncker, Matt Doherty and Jota all having chances to open the scoring, merited their point.

The equaliser came through Wilfried Zaha's failure to maintain possession for Palace, Adama Traore galloping clear on the right, with his far-post cross poked home by Jota from four yards as defender Ward lost his balance.

That denied Roy Hodgson's Palace side, who move up to 12th in the table, a fourth win in five matches against Wolves, a win could also have moved them into the top six.

While Nuno has not shown signs of being a man under pressure, the way in which the visiting bench exuberantly celebrated Jota's last-gasp goal told a different story.

It had looked like being another miserable afternoon for the Black Country side, who had arrived in London having failed to win any of their opening five top-flight fixtures.

On every occasion that has happened to them in the past, relegation has followed - 2003-04, 1983-84, 1975-76, 1964-65, 1905-06 - but the way in which his side rallied suggests Nuno's team have the quality and heart to avoid the same fate.

With Ruben Neves relegated to the substitutes bench, captain Conor Coady assumed the early responsibility for orchestrating Wolves' attacking play from the centre of defence.

The former midfielder, who was converted into the central figure of Wolves' three-man defence when Nuno arrived in 2017, sprayed several raking cross-field passes to initiate openings.

In the first half, there were few signs of a lack of confidence or fatigue - Wolves have now completed 13 matches this season, almost double the number of most of their domestic rivals.

Doherty's header forced Palace keeper Vicente Guaita into a fine stop, while Dendoncker's close-range strike was blocked close to the Palace goalline.

But it was their attitude to adversity which stood out, as they persevered despite being a man and a goal down in the last 20 minutes.

Substitute Neves curled a right-footed shot just wide while Jota and Traore both saw efforts blocked by a posse of home defenders before Jota's goal.

After a humbling 4-0 reverse at Tottenham this was very much a Palace performance that reverted back to Roy Hodgson's blueprint of defensive discipline and organisation.

Forward-thinking midfielder Andros Townsend was sacrificed for James McArthur in the starting XI as the former England manager again deployed a five-man midfield but this time with personnel capable of stifling the opposition.

And that strategy worked during the first period - albeit aided by some errant Wolves finishing - as the teams largely cancelled each other out.

The problem for Hodgson arrived once Ward's deflected strike and Saiss' dismissal put Palace in complete command.

Luka Milivojevic and Kouyate both saw shots from distance deflected behind while substitute Christian Benteke and Jeffrey Schlupp forced Patricio into one-versus-one saves.

But they were simply unable to kill off the game and in committing men forward to do so they showed a lack of game management as they left themselves open to Wolves on the counter-attack.

"I am bitterly disappointed," Hodgson said.

"It feels like a defeat. I didn't expect them to get such a clear goal chance. You want game management and players to use experience to see games through but the feeling is one of disappointment and anguish that we weren't able to see the game through. We have surrendered two points."

Crystal Palace face Norwich at Selhurst Park in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday 28 September (15:00 BST).

Wolves host Reading in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday 25 September (19:45 BST) before resuming their Premier League duties at Molineux against Watford on Saturday 28 September (15:00 BST).