Ian Holloway says Crystal Palace’s Championship play-off semi-final victory over Brighton proves that the players are united behind him.
Palace nearly missed out on the play-offs after going nine games without a win but they defied the odds last night to win the second leg of their tie at Brighton 2-0.
Holloway was furious with the suggestion he had lost the dressing room and said confidence was now high as they prepare to fight it out with Watford at Wembley on May 27 for a place in the Premier League. “What a load of rubbish,” the Palace manager said. “How many other teams have had wobbles? It is a joke. I know what I am doing. How wrong of everyone to write us off.
“We have gone to the hardest place and passed a test of character. Did I doubt my lads? No. Did I doubt myself? Every one of them played their heart last night.
“They were brave. A couple of weeks ago they did not feel like that because things were not going for us. We’d lost our 30-goal talisman [Glenn Murray], everyone wrote us off but you can’t do that.
“Now I think we are feeling much better about ourselves.”
Palace’s slump in form started in March when they lost 3‑0 to Brighton at The Amex.
Having been comprehensively beaten in that game, Holloway said his players owed it to the fans to reach the final.
Brighton came into the play-offs on a run of four wins in five games but they were held 0-0 at Selhurst Park on Friday and were seen off last night by a brace of goals from Wilfried Zaha.
Holloway added: “We’d learned from what has gone wrong lately. I thought they showed courage and bravery to take on a team that are in as good form as Gus Poyet’s boys are. They had a swagger about them. They looked pretty awesome but we kept our discipline.
“They carried it out to the letter, we had to do it and every one of them and every substitute who came on.
“I’m very, very proud of our football club to be able to come here with the atmosphere that this ground created.
“But I thought they were terrific and we beat a very good team.
“Perhaps my supporters won’t like it if I say that but I believe we did. They were excellent but we were that little bit better.”
