Saturday 3 December 2016 20:18, UK
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew expressed his gratitude to chairman Steve Parish after the Eagles ended a shocking run with a 3-0 defeat of Southampton.
Pardew has been under pressure this week after last Saturday's 5-4 loss at Swansea made it six defeats in a row, but Parish has stood by his manager and got his rewards on Saturday as a Christian Benteke double and an improved defensive display secured a very welcome three points.
Pardew and Parish gestured appreciatively to each other after one of the goals and Pardew says his chairman's football know-how is important to the club.
"It is tough," Pardew told Sky Sports. "You have to understand that we have a lot of heavy investors here in the background, some of their knowledge of the football is not great, and he has to defend me.
"That is what he has done this week and I just wanted to say thank you to him for that."
A bad mistake from Saints goalkeeper Fraser Forster handed Palace the lead but they went on to take full advantage of their good fortune and Pardew was well pleased by the display.
"We have done so much right in the six defeats we have had," Pardew said. "The players did not deserve those really
"But they were so disciplined today and we won really from our process of what we tried to achieve this week. We tried not to give anything away.
"We defended brilliantly and we will always score, that is the one benefit we have in this team. Christian Benteke got another two and that is a lot of boxes we have ticked today. Clean sheet, we have got that off our back. A good win.
"It was not our most fluid performance but we had some good individual play within our unit and it was enough to see us through.
"Wilf (Zaha) had his moments, Christian had his moments, [Jason] Puncheon was terrific, but the plaudits go to our back four and to our fans, who I thought created a great atmosphere today, considering the run we have been on.
"A very important win, because it just takes a bit of pressure off us all."
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