Steve Parish confident of Crystal Palace survival

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has insisted that he is confident that the club can avoid relegation from the Premier League this season.

The Eagles are currently 19th in the table and two points from safety, having picked up just one win in eight attempts since Sam Allardyce replaced Alan Pardew as manager over Christmas.

Allardyce arrived at Selhurst Park with a record of never having been relegated from the top flight and, despite the club falling into the dropzone since he took over, Parish remains convinced that they can turn things around in the remaining 13 games of the season.

"Of course we are [confident] and there's a lot of work going on in the background," he told talkSPORT this morning.

"Sometimes you do get that instant bounce [of a new manager] – we actually played very well against Watford when Sam arrived. If we had scored the penalty we probably would have won the game so we did actually get a reaction.

"No matter, there's an enormous amount of hard work going on in the background to change things and to get the lads to the level that they need to be at in the next few games."

Next up for Palace is a home encounter with fellow strugglers Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon.