Under-fire Pardew admits Palace are in crisis
(Reuters) - Under-fire manager Alan Pardew said Crystal Palace are in a crisis following their six-game losing streak but refuted claims that he is a game away from being sacked.
Pardew said he had talks with the board over his team's worrying form but the discussions were not about his future.
Palace's encouraging start to the campaign has been long forgotten after the south London club lost six successive league games, which has seen them slide down the table to 17th, only managing to stay out of the relegation zone on goal difference.
"The chairman and the board here have been fantastically supportive," Pardew told reporters on Friday. "This is a crisis at the moment. It's a mini-crisis that we have to get through.
"The work we've done, the work they've done, the work they want to do going forward all bodes well but we've got to get past this period.
"I think he (chairman Steve Parish) just really wants to see that we're putting the effort on the pitch, which I think we've done in every game so far this year, but doing it at a level where we can get ourselves a result."
Pardew has come under immense pressure during Palace's six-game winless run.
"No but I am a realist," the 55-year-old said when asked if he had been told he had to win at home against Southampton on Saturday.
"I understand the situation with the Premier League, I've got to make sure that the next result is a positive one for us.
"I think that pressure I will put on myself. It's a situation where I have to get results, that's the business I'm in."
The 55-year-old said neither did he seek nor did he receive any assurances over his future at Selhurst Park during the meeting with the club's hierarchy.
Pardew confirmed first-choice goalkeeper Steve Mandanda will be out for six weeks with a knee problem and will join striker Connor Wickham, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury last weekend, on the treatment table.
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
