Saturday 26 December 2015 19:00, UK
Alan Pardew hailed a "brilliant" performance from his Crystal Palace side as they earned a 0-0 draw at Bournemouth.
Palace, who moved up to fifth following Manchester United's defeat, face Swansea at Selhurst Park in two days' time, but Pardew believes Scott Dann and Damien Delaney will be fine despite injury concerns late on at the Vitality Stadium.
The Palace manager praised his team's battling display and also paid tribute to opponents Bournemouth as Eddie Howe's side stretched their unbeaten run to six games.
"It was a brilliant [performance]; this Bournemouth team, they do work you," Pardew said.
"They were spent at the end. That was probably our best spell in the last 10 minutes when they had nothing to give, they had given everything for Eddie. It was a fantastic effort from them.
"They had limited us to very few chances, we had to work very hard to earn a draw and I'm very pleased with it.
"We would have liked to have created a little bit more, but the work rate for both teams was unbelievable. We are both going to suffer in two days' time, but that's Bournemouth, they are really going to test you.
"They are off the back of three wins, they keep their unbeaten run going and we keep our unbeaten run going, which is more important and it takes us up a place."
Palace had already made all three changes when Dann and Delaney picked up injuries in quick succession with 10 minutes to play, but both continued and Pardew was delighted with their contributions to another clean sheet.
"I didn't have that option [to substitute them], they were fine, they are a couple of warriors," Pardew continued. "They played well today, it was a very difficult game, tactically, physically, mentally. We need to rest."
Injuries to Connor Wickham and Yannick Bolasie ruled both out of Saturday's match, and Pardew hopes to get loan striker Patrick Bamford back for the Swansea game.
"We are hoping Patrick recovers a little bit because we probably lacked [there], and the chance for him to play was probably lost with that injury on Friday," Pardew said.
"We'll have to wait and see, but I don't think anybody else is close. We're pretty thin at the moment but that's part and parcel of the game. You get periods like this."
