Crystal Palace attacker Andros Townsend has stated that the players always believed they could get back to winning ways despite a poor start to the season.

Palace ended their terrible run of defeats by claiming a shock 2-1 victory over champions Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last weekend, and Townsend has explained that the players always had faith that they could pull off good results despite their struggles.

Townsend said: "Of course it has been fair, we have had seven defeats on the spin and we have deserved every bit of criticism.

"But with the quality we have, we knew that we hadn't quite had the rub of the green in games, and we knew that if we kept working hard and got a few bodies back fit, get Wilf back, we would have a team on our hands and we showed that [against Chelsea].

"All the work we have been doing since the manager came in came to fruition but we have to keep this going now and go to Newcastle and get a result.

"The main thing is we know we have got the quality, but we have to show that same desire and fight, and hopefully our quality will show through like it did [against Chelsea]."