Allardyce on a high with vital victory

Sam Allardyce felt he could see the pressure lifting from his Crystal Palace players as they ground out a crucial victory at West Brom on Saturday.

Superb second-half goals from Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend in an otherwise dull clash secured a 2-0 win that lifted Palace out of the Premier League’s bottom three.

It was Palace’s second successive victory – for the first time since Allardyce took charge in December – and it seems the veteran manager’s methods are starting to take hold.

Allardyce said: “All the players are working hard, and they were working hard without really knowing it because the pressure is coming off them.

“They are relieving themselves of all that pressure they have been putting themselves under for most of this season.

“When you get results that pressure lifts and you are running around with more freedom. You’re not realising how much running you’re doing because you’re enjoying it that little bit more. And the lads deserve to enjoy what they have done here.”

He added: “It’s the start of the recovery, I would say, with back-to-back wins and the performance, both in and out of possession.

“Out of possession gave us the platform for victory and then the ask for better quality in the final third came with two outstanding pieces of quality.”

Home boss Tony Pulis felt his side were “tepid” and wrote the result off as “one of those games”.