Crystal Palace to be rewarded with warm-weather training break after return to form
Monday 27 February 2017 12:00, UK
Crystal Palace will be rewarded for their return to form with a warm-weather training camp in the coming weeks, manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed.
They significantly improved during Saturday's 1-0 defeat of Middlesbrough, which has revived their hopes of surviving relegation from the Premier League, and Allardyce plans to take them away after next week's fixture at West Brom.
After that visit to The Hawthorns, because of their elimination from the FA Cup, Palace will not play again for two weeks - when they host Watford.
A proposed trip to Dubai earlier this month was cancelled after their embarrassing 4-0 defeat at home to Sunderland, but the manager has revealed another is to be explored.
During last season's run to the FA Cup final, Allardyce's predecessor Alan Pardew often took his team away to prepare for their games in the competition, and the new boss said: "We'll have a look at that now this week.
"The weather's so poor here. Since 2001, in the Premier League, apart from with Newcastle because I got sacked before I could take them away, I've taken every team away for the sunshine; a warm-weather break.
"It's worked for me, so we'll be looking at that this week to see where we can go.
"Everyone's lifted their physical element, which I think has come from the training we've given them, and that's helped with the mental side: the decision making [against Middlesbrough] was very, very good."
Victory over Boro, courtesy of Patrick van Aanholt's first-half goal, took Palace out of the relegation zone and up to 17th, as well as again giving them the belief they can survive.
A run of six defeats from seven appeared to leave them at their greatest risk of returning to the Championship since their promotion in 2013, but Allardyce said their performance reminded him of the way new signings Lamine Kone and Jan Kirchoff began to inspire his Sunderland team last season.
"If I can make any comparison, it's what Patrick and Mamadou Sakho brought to the team," said the 62-year-old. "That bit more quality.
"Mama showed a lot of composure, played a lot of nice, simple balls to midfield players, and said 'Right, you get on with it'. Perhaps before that we were hurrying our clearances."
