September 17 2014

Damien Delaney (Photo: Andy Roberts)

DAMIEN DELANEY reckons Crystal Palace have the strength in depth to stay up again.

Palace were fortunate with injuries and suspensions last season as they avoided relegation from the Premier League for the first time.

With the arrival of new recruits over the summer, the centre half believes the Eagles squad is stronger than ever.

He said: "We were blessed last year to get through from January to the end of the season with no injuries, no suspensions, nobody really reached five yellow cards, so our starting line up barely changed.

"We were incredibly lucky and it will never happen again.

"It is good now we do have that strength and depth so that we have good players ready to come in if, God forbid, anybody does go down.

"We play XI v XI in training and there is genuinely two good elevens out there that I wouldn’t mind starting in either of them."

DELANEY is not disheartened after Palace failed to beat relegation candidates Burnley in a 0-0 draw last Saturday. Julian Speroni was Palace's hero as he made a brilliant save to keep out Scott Arfield's late penalty.

He said: "We’ll take the point because we could have lost at the end. That is two games undefeated now after a good point last week and it was good to get a clean sheet as well.

"I would have taken another 3-3 draw because points are what matter in this division, but it’s good to get our first clean sheet.

"Hopefully we can get back into a good rhythm and get back to picking up points like we did last season."