Blackpool defender blasts Palace boss

Holloway left Blackpool earlier this month to become the new Crystal Palace boss and he has seen his side maintain their position at the top of the table.

“In the last couple of months, we hadn’t really done much training. We had numerous days off - anything from two to five or six at a time,” he said.

“It was as surprising to the lads as anyone else. We’re an honest bunch of players and we want to work hard, but at times we weren’t doing that. Maybe that’s why we had the bad spell that we had.

“We’ve knuckled down now. Training has been fantastic in the last 10 days or so.

“The training has been hard work but we’ve needed it. We’re doing things that we haven’t done for a long time, especially working on things defensively.

“For whatever reason, the old manager didn’t really work on defensive stuff. It was all attacking work.

“The lads are getting fitter and stronger. It’s onwards and upwards now and hopefully now we’ll start climbing the league because that’s where we deserve to be.”