Defender Chris Smalling has said that Manchester United showed "a lot of character" to overturn a two-goal deficit to overcome Crystal Palace on Monday night.

United found themselves facing defeat as Palace netted their second goal early in the second half, but Smalling and Romelu Lukaku got the visitors back on level terms before Nemanja Matic's spectacular winner in the closing stages.

After the match, manager Jose Mourinho praised his side for their comeback, and Smalling feels that the first-team squad showed their togetherness by fighting back to record three points at Selhurst Park.

The 28-year-old is quoted by The Mirror as saying: "There's not been many games where we've come back - granted, there's not many games when we've gone 2-0 down - but you can see how close we are as a group that everyone celebrated together, and how much it means to us, because that was a huge win.

"We showed a lot of character. Before the game, we knew how important this was to really try and make a gap with the other teams, so it's such a great feeling. We dug in, and you can see from the celebrations at the end how much that meant to all of us."

The result led to United moving back into second place in the Premier League table.