Sam Allardyce expressed his delight over Crystal Palace’s 1-0 win against fellow relegation strugglers, Middlesbrough.

Allardyce believed that having last weekend off helped greatly in his side’s win this afternoon, saying: “We gave them the weekend off, and having the two weeks off worked in our favour. The two weeks worked well with the players as it allowed them to have time to train and think, and it allowed the new players to mingle with their new teammates.”

Allardyce also praised the input by January signing, Patrick van Aanholt, who scored the only goal of the game and put in a good defensive display as well. Allardyce said: “It was an excellent goal from Patrick, who has a good habit of attacking and scoring goals as a fullback, it was an important goal for us and an important clean sheet for the team.”

Van Aanholt scored the only goal of the match in the 34th minute, after the former Sunderland defender found himself on the edge of the penalty area after a messy play from the Eagles, however the Dutch left back managed to spin from his man, and curl the ball past a hopeless Victor Valdes, to secure the three points for Palace.

Allardyce also praised deadline day signing, Mamadou Sakho, in his first competitive game for the south London side. Sakho was frozen out of Liverpool after it was discovered that the French defender admitted to taking a substance that was believed to be banned by UEFA. Despite the case being cleared in July, Sakho never featured for Liverpool for the rest of 2016.

Allardyce said about the defender: “We spent a good bit of time on his fitness, and he accepted that he had to put in the extra work in, and I think his experience and composure today made him look very commendable today.”

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Dylan Walsh
Student at the University of Brighton, 20-years-old, Twitter: @dylanwalsh_