Marouane Chamakh’s goal took Crystal Palace off the bottom of the Premier League table as they beat West Ham United 1-0 in Tony Pulis’ first home game in charge at Selhurst Park on Tuesday.
Chamakh scored the only goal of the game — the Moroccan’s first since Aug. 24 — when he headed in Barry Bannan’s curling cross in the 42nd minute.
The striker had previously scored just one goal this season — although that was still one goal more than he managed in five months on loan at West Ham last term.
West Ham came into this all London clash boosted by a 3-0 win over Fulham, but have still to record back-to-back Premier League wins since being promoted last year.
Victory left Palace just three points adrift of safety and West Ham, one of several clubs on 13 points who could yet get drawn into a relegation battle.
“We stayed strong and didn’t give them the chances to score and I hope it will be like that every week until the end of the season,” Pulis said.
Meanwhile, West Ham manager Sam Allardyce bemoaned his side’s performance.
“Not enough cutting edge. I think that’s the problem for us,” Allardyce said. “Then we gave away the most ridiculous goal I’ve seen in a long, long time from our point of view. I haven’t got the words for it when everybody has a marker and the ball comes in from the corner, you still have your marker, you don’t lose your marker, but we did and being in the middle of the goal with a free header they’re not going to miss.”
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