Gary Johnson praised his side for its never-say-die attitude after watching Jamie McCombe snatch a point against Crystal Palace with a last-minute header.

The goal saw Ashton Gate erupt, following the disappointment of Lee Hills' controversial 61st-minute opener and Julian Speroni's double-penalty save, which had looked set to give the Londoners an away win in front of the Sky TV cameras.

The City boss told Bristol City World afterwards: "I'd have liked to have broken them down with our football but that didn't quite work out and when it got late we had to resort to getting the ball into the box.

"I don't like resorting to that [sort of football] but we had to because we were 1-0 down. We threw on the cavalry, got the penalty and, even then in adversity, the boys didn't drop their heads.

"Funnily enough, I thought we put some great quality into the box and we were certainly attacking the ball with a bit of passion.

"When we got the goal Jamie met the ball well but that's the determination you need in the first minute to try and score a goal.

"You have to give credit to the opposition. They had a game plan, were very strong, closed us down every minute of the game and decided to play long at every opportunity which we didn't quite handle.

"It is always better to come back from 1-0 down to draw 1-1, and the stadium erupted when the goal went in - it was as though we had won.

"It was nice it came against Palace and it means they haven't done the double over us. It is another point on the board and, although we didn't go top as we would have liked to have done, at least we didn't lose.

The TV cameras suggested there was a possible handball incident leading up to Palace's opener, and Gary commented: "The lads were disappointed and definitely felt it was handball but it was quite difficult for me to see at ground level."

At the other end, City won a penalty when Darren Byfield was pulled from behind in the area. City's boss said: "We had bodies in the box and I didn't know a lot about it to be honest. I was totally disappointed when we didn't score [from the spot] but at least the lads didn't give up."

Asked about Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock's comment that referee Richard Beeby had "punched the air" when City scored in the fifth minute of injury time, Gary quipped: "Neil is a passionate man, and he likes to rant and rave.

"It's a minimum of four minutes that were added on and all I would say is that if referee did punch the air - which I really suspect he didn't - it would have been great if he had let the game go on and let us have the winner!"