‘Kick up the backside’ from Steve Parish lifted the Crystal Palace players, says James McArthur

The threat of relegation is growing for Crystal Palace but midfielder James McArthur is confident they will drag themselves out of trouble.

Palace lost 1-0 at Stoke on Saturday but manager Sam Allardyce did get a response to the 4-0 thumping by Sunderland a week earlier.

McArthur says a lecture from club chairman Steve Parish in the dressing room after the Sunderland game gave the players plenty to think about. McArthur said: “I was delighted the chairman did what he did last week. It gave every one of us a kick up the backside to demand more from each other. He was not happy. It is not a nice thing someone screaming at you but it was what was needed and lifted every single person. From that it led to a meeting and that cleared a lot of things up for all the players.

“We said every single person must be better at this club. Every one of us needs to do more because not one of us has done enough in the last year.

“Standards need to be lifted. That meeting was a big turning point for me at this club. It has led to training being better and, while we did not get the result we were looking for on Saturday, everyone is in a better place now.”

Palace are two points from safety and face Middlesbrough in a crunch relegation clash at Selhurst Park next Saturday.

It is now six defeats in eight Premier League matches since Allardyce took over and Palace remain in the bottom three, but, with just five points separating six sides at the foot of the table, their cause is far from hopeless.

“We have done our talking,” added McArthur. “It is about producing on the park now.

“We are playing low on confidence but we are looking forward to the challenge. It is time to turn it around.

“Everything is doom and gloom but if we beat Middlesbrough we will be on the same points as them. Then I would fancy us to kick on.”