Crystal Palace players held frank, clear-the-air talks in a desperate bid to revive their season in the build-up to the win against Southampton, reports the London Evening Standard.

Boss Alan Pardew was under increasing pressure after Palace lost 5-4 to Swansea and Damien Delaney has revealed how the squad held an inquest into their surrender in Wales.

"Last week at Swansea was a turning point," said Delaney. "That was probably as difficult as it gets. I have never seen anything like that in my life before.

"That was probably a wake-up call. On Monday morning we came in and it was a case of no more messing about now, time to get down to business."

Asked whether Pardew was involved in those particular discussions, Delaney said: "No, he had no need to say anything.

"You can have as many meetings as you want but sometimes you are better off the players just letting stuff go.

"Everyone knew it was not up to scratch. And I mean as a group, not just the players who played at Swansea. The players came in Monday and were motivated, there was a different feel about the place. Saturday was a good reaction."