Alan Pardew hails "important" win

Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has praised his squad for delivering an "important" win over Southampton at Selhurst Park this afternoon to ease relegation worries.

A brace from Christian Benteke and a James Tomkins strike brought an end to Palace's run of six straight defeats in the league, lifting them to 13th in the Premier League table.

The result came one week after a disappointing 5-4 defeat at rock-bottom Swansea City, but Pardew hopes that the victory will be "a turning point" in their fortunes.

"It's hard to push your players and keep them in the right frame of mind after last week's result," he told reporters after the game. "But the one benefit from this team is we'll always score and now we have got the clean sheet off back hopefully this will be a turning point.

"It wasn't our most fluid performance but we worked hard. Christian Benteke and Andros Townsend played well but the plaudits have to go to our back four. I thought we had the right balance between being cautious and also showing some flair. I'm pleased for the club and it was important that we won today. The discipline was good. When the pressure racks up in the Premier League it's hard but we got the balance right and we had some good attacking play.

"When you've been manager at Newcastle and the whole town lives and breathes football, you have to be able to cope with pressure. The pressure sometimes there was intense. It wasn't as bad this week."

Next up for Palace is a trip to fellow relegation-battlers Hull City next weekend.