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MAMMOTH TASK

Crystal Palace were one of the teams promoted into the top flight last season. However, they were immediately faced with the huge task of strengthening the team after having come through the play-offs. This is usually very tough for club because they have limited time to close the deals. Crystal Palace manager Ian Holloway has been reflecting on a very poor week for him because the club has not been able to bring in any new faces. Holloway has already experienced relegation from the Premier league only recently from his time at Blackpool.

Immediately after promotion, he has said that he will not be making the same mistakes again. However, Holloway has found it extremely hard to attract players to the club. Even when he manages to get players consider coming to Selhurst Park, there have been several close misses along the way. The club was recently defeated 3-0 by lower league Crawley Town, which has put a lot of doubts in the minds of the fans. After this match, Holloway has urged the board to act quickly and bring in quality players.

The loss of Zaha will also be huge for the club. The winger was sold to Manchester United for around £ 15 million, but they are yet to replace him.

“Myself and the chairman are going to sit down and have a look at the targets we have shot at, and go from a scattergun approach to the rifle. We have got to knock some targets over. Now we have found out what it might cost us, where we are going, I’m sure if he was here today he wouldn’t have been too happy with that either. We have got to hone down some targets,” said Holloway.

The opening match of the season will see Crystal Palace play against Tottenham at home.

STILL IN IT

The manager of Crystal Palace, Ian Holloway, has said that his side is still in line for the Premier League promotion.

The performance of Crystal Palace has deteriorated considerably in the last one and half months. They haven’t secured three points in any of their last 9 matches. They have shared points in 4 and have been defeated in 5.

The last time that they had won a match was in the first week of March when they had defeated Hull City by 4-2.

They are still not certain to qualify for the play offs. They have to play against Peterborough United on Saturday and if they want to ensure their play off qualification, they well have to secure at least one point from that match.

In their last match against Blackburn Rovers, Crystal had certainly shown some improvements, but, they still didn’t manage to get on the winning ways. That match was a draw with both teams scoring one goal each.

Talking to the reporters ahead of the match against Peterborough United, Holloway said, “We don’t need to panic at this point of time. We are still in line to qualify for the play offs and then, get promoted to the Premier League. We just need one point against Peterborough and if we play as well as we had played against Blackburn the other day, we will certainly get that 1 point.”

“I think we have improved a lot off late. A few weeks back, things were looking absolutely dreadful when he had suffered three defeats in a row. But, we have managed to sneak in a few draws and that has certainly boosted the confidence of the side.”

“There is no lack of quality in our squad. We just need not to think about previous matches. We should play freely on the ground.  If we manage to get to the play offs, it will not be easy to defeat us.”