December 23 2004

Iain Dowie

Crystal Palace boss Iain Dowie is refusing to panic despite his side going seven Premiership games without a victory and slipping into the botTOM three for the first time sINCE October, by Stuart Pink.

The Eagles have only collected three points out of a possible 21 during the barren run, but Dowie is confident his side can turn things round during the busy Christmas fixtures.

Dowie said: "There's no need to panic, we had a run where everyone was writing us off and then we had a great run, now we haven't had as good a points return as we could, but outside the Blackburn game I can't remember us playing poorly.

"Let people say what they want to say, we were a minute away from getting a point at Liverpool, we should have won at Southampton, we certainly deserved to beat Charlton when we conceded in the last minute and we had a penalty saved, we were very much in the game against Newcastle, and we've played Man Utd away."

Palace face a daunting four games in the space of eight days, with matches against Fulham, Spurs, Aston Villa and Boxing Day's clash with Portsmouth.

A good run for Palace during this period could see the Eagles rise out of trouble and a win against Portsmouth would be the perfect start.

Dowie said: "We've got to get some points from them whatever happens, we've got to get on a winning run.

"Spurs away is going to be a tough game, they're in good form, but we've got to deal with Portsmouth first. They played very well against Arsenal, they're very solid defensively and the forwards gave Arsenal some problems."

The Palace boss also indicated that he is closer to finalising some transfer targets and hopes they can make an immediate impact when the transfer window opens on January 1.

Dowie added: "One or two things are starting to crystallise, so we shall see.

"But we need some players who can cut it at this level, impact players who can come in and do it straight away."

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