May 11 2005

Mikele Leigertwood

Mikele Leigertwood has labelled pundits who have dismissed the Eagles survival chances as "stupid" and believes his side still have a great chance of avoiding the drop, by Stuart Pink.

The Palace utility man spoke out after Saturday's draw left the Eagles needing three points from the last game of the season against Charlton to stand any hope of staying in the Premiership.

Leigertwood said: "Anyone would be stupid to write us off. We've still got a game to go. Norwich were written off, we have been written off in the past, so it doesn't matter what they say."

Leigertwood believes Palace can take inspiration from last season's surge towards the play-offs and the subsequent play-off final to prove they can defy the odds.

Leigertwood said: "We love proving people wrong. Time and time again we've done it, no one expected us to get to the play-offs, no one expected us to win against West Ham, no one expected us to do as well as we have done in this league. We've just got to prove them wrong again."

He added: "We've just got to win next week, there's nothing more to say. We blew it here, but it's not over, we've still got 90 minutes to go and we're confident we can still do it."

Live Croydon Guardian text commentary