Palace on the up as Fulham falter

Four points from two games after five straight league defeats means no one at Palace will be getting too carried away.

However, if a 1-1 draw at Aston Villa and last night's win represent a turnaround then a number of factors have contributed. The switch to playing five in midfield and just Andy Johnson up front two games ago was important.

Riihilahti said it suits Palace's small but tenacious midfielders and admitted that "earlier in the season we probably lumped it a bit too long".

The fact that Dowie finally signed his new four-year contract before the Villa game was probably a factor too.

Chairman Simon Jordan added to the feeling of security last night by reconfirming his commitment to Palace. "I am not selling to Colonel Gadaffi, Ron Noades or Uncle Tom Cobbley so it looks like you are stuck with me," he said in his programme notes. But much of Palace's hope relies on the success of Johnson.

He scored the first goal against Fulham after 53 minutes when he slotted home after Riihilahti played him through. When the Finn headed in the second from a Wayne Routledge corner 15 minutes later, it meant Johnson had scored five of Palace's eight Premiership goals.

Riihilahti said: "Andrew has been brilliant for us. His movement is great, he fights for the ball, is lively and scores goals.

"It is good to have someone who can score on any day from anywhere but we need more depth than that. We cannot just be dependant on one goalscorer."

Dowie's decision to stick with just one man up front gives Palace a similar approach to Fulham's last season.

They successfully relied on Louis Saha before he joined Manchester United in January, but were far less impressive afterwards.

All the more reason for Palace to keep hold of Johnson, although some of their more recent signings showed encouraging signs last night. Dowie's team had changes from the start and always looked like they would capitalise on Ian Pearce's sending-off after only five minutes for pulling down Johnson After their goals Palace hit the post, had a good penalty shout rejected and Johnson shot wide when clean through with lots of time late on. Goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, who broke his nose in the game, was Fulham's best player.

Manager Chris Coleman had key players out through injury and suspension, but the defeat still sounded alarm bells for him.

With Andy Cole facing a long ban after his spat with Neil Clement at West Brom, Pearce set for suspension, and Claus Jensen and Sylvain Legwinski sidelined he may have to continue to make do.

"We did not lose because we had 10 men, it was because we were not good enough. One or two of my boys need to wake up and smell the coffee.

"We have to find some consistency. We have been good one game, bad and indifferent in others. That tells me it will be a long, hard season and come March or April we will be in the bottom eight.

"There is no sitting down with the team having a meeting, showing them a video, It is just working hard on the training pitch and that is what we will be doing."