June 16 2006

Selhurst Park

Peter Taylor has vowed to lead Crystal Palace to the Premiership.

Palace's new manager signed a three-year deal with the Eagles on Tuesday after leaving Hull City.

And the 53-year-old is confident of a glorious Championship campaign at the club where he made his name as a player during the 1970s.

"I'm delighted to be here and am looking forward to the challenge of getting the club promoted,"he said.

"It's going to be a very big challenge because the Championship will be a very hard division to get out of.

"But we played against Palace a couple of times with Hull last season, and I was very impressed with what I saw.

"They finished sixth last season and I'd like to improve on that. My aim is to get promotion.

"We have some very good players here and the first thing I'm going to do is keep the best ones."

Taylor expects to bolster the squad with up to five new signings in the coming weeks.

He has the full backing of chairman Simon Jordan who has promised him cash from the sale of ANDY JOHNSON.

MK Dons forward Izale McLeod is report-edly a £1 million target.

Jordan said: "I will give Peter the tools that he needs to do the job that we want - to get the team back in the Premiership at the end of next year.

"Personally, I feel last year was a wasted year and I don't want to waste another. We had a number of candidates that could take the club forward.

"I want someone to come in and take the club forward as quickly as possible.We decided Peter was the one who could do that.

"We're looking at players and we need to bring four or five in and we have an idea on who they might be. Some players may go as well but we need to improve.

"I want success and last year was a waste of time and I don't want a repeat of that. All focus this year is to get promoted."