Extra work gets lift-off for Pardew

Alan Pardew has revealed Crystal Palace’s vastly-improved performance in their 3-0 defeat of Southampton owed much to a punishing training session on Thursday.

The manager’s team ended a run of six successive defeats that had put intense pressure on his position while earning their first clean sheet since August after two goals from Christian Benteke and another from James Tomkins.

Victory took them away from the relegation zone – and came after a week in which Pardew drilled his defence at Selhurst Park instead of their training ground and did additional work to improve their setpieces.

Damien Delaney excelled in central defence after being recalled while Joel Ward shone at leftback.

Pardew, who was reportedly at risk of the sack if Palace lost, said: “Defensively we had to be sound, there was no other box we needed to tick: that was the most important one. Setplays we were calm.

“Damo (Delaney) is a leader. He’s not blessed with massive amounts of talent but he makes up for it with his personality, desire and leadership, and we got all of that from him.

“The back four was better for him in it. They needed defensive work. They longed for it; they wanted the clean sheet.

“Next week at Hull is even more important. We can’t afford to lose that; we must go up there and get something.”