Damien Delaney comes in for special mention as Alan Pardew reveals how Palace upped their game

Pardew said: "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."

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.