Peter Taylor backs Crystal Palace to shine in play-offs

Peter Taylor is backing his former club Crystal Palace to win the Championship play-offs and return to the Premiership after a three-year gap.

Palace will ensure they are involved in the playoffs if they beat Burnley at Selhurst Park on Sunday and Taylor, who was sacked by chairman Simon Jordan last October, said: "If Palace make it to the play-offs, which they should, my money would be on them to go all the way.

"They remind me of the Palace team who won through to the play-offs under Iain Dowie and the West Ham team under Alan Pardew the following year.

"This Palace squad have the same kind of self-confidence and none of the other teams will be relishing playing against them."

Taylor, who left Conference side Stevenage this week, wants to return to league management despite his unhappy time at Selhurst Park.

He added: "In the end it didn't work out at Palace but there was a lot of negativity there towards the end of my time and that affected the players.

"Neil Warnock took a little time when he took over but since then he has done a superb job."