Kelly urges Crystal Palace players to stand up and be counted

Martin Kelly is confident Crystal Palace fans will see a reaction from the team in their final two games of the season, following the hammering they received from Manchester City on Saturday.

Victories over Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool last month had reinvigorated the Eagles’ push for Premier League survival.

(Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

But Saturday’s defeat to the Citizens was their third on the bounce – and their heaviest of the season at 5-0 – leaving them just four points clear of the drop by the end of the weekend.

Next Sunday sees them entertain relegation rivals and third bottom Hull City before then concluding their campaign with a trip to face Manchester United the following week.

And Kelly insists now is the time to dig deep rather than feel sorry for themselves.

“We can have no excuses when conceding that many and football can be cruel to you sometimes but this result leaves us all fully focussed on the week ahead,” he said.

“We have two more games left but looking back over recent matches we have got points where people would have written us off and then we have dropped points in games where we should have got something.

“Now we need to dust ourselves down and go at it again next Sunday with our own fans right behind us so we need to stand up and do our best.”