Crystal Palace defender James Tomkins said having to stand on the pitch for the opening ceremony of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was 'not ideal'.
Tottenham enjoyed the perfect start to life in their new £1billion home with a 2-0 win over Palace, thanks to goals from with Son Heung-Min and Christian Eriksen .
But Tomkins said players were bemused at having to stand on the pitch as fans were treated to a spectacular opening-night show.
Tomkins said: "It’s always tough playing Spurs. And coming to the new stadium as well, it was always going to be a bit tougher I suppose.
"But we gave it a good go, in the first half we kept them pretty quiet and in the main I think we did pretty well. We all know we can do better but it was their day today.
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"At the start it’s not ideal with the ceremony, that goes on and you’re standing there for quite a while.
"It’s quite surreal compared to what you’re used to but the atmosphere was always going to be great and we kept them quiet, that was the main thing: coming here and keeping that crowd quiet for as long as we could. We did that but couldn’t quite get the win."
Palace travel to face Newcastle on Saturday with both teams aiming to pull away from the lower reaches of the Premier League table, while Tottenham's win in their new 62,000-capacity stadium saw them climb back up to third.
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And Tomkins said: "Everyone’s full of emotion, not just the players. We’ll take positives out of that going into a big game on Saturday."
The 59,000 crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday was treated to a performance by X-Factor contestant Lanya Matthews, who fronted a rendition of 'Everybody Dreams' by Gladesmore Community School.
The impressive acoustics of the new stadium were also put to the test as the teams then entered the pitch to the tune of the club's anthem 'Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In', performed by the Tottenham Hotspur Band.
