Crystal Palace defender Joel Ward insists that despite the nature of the winning goal, there was nothing lucky about the south London side’s 1-0 win over Chelsea.

It was Ward who played a major role in the Eagles’ goal as his cross was turned into his own net by Chelsea captain John Terry under pressure from Joe Ledley.

Jose Mourinho slammed his superstars for “going missing” on the day, and admitted that Palace fully deserved the win, a verdict that Ward completely agrees with.

He said: “It certainly wasn’t a lucky 1-0 win, we created a lot of chances in the second half and we were unlucky not to come away with more.

“I’ll take the assist that is for sure, but I wasn’t sure if it came off of John Terry or Joe Ledley.

“We knew their quality and we knew what they were going to do but as the game went on we grew in confidence and started to cause them problems and we were unlucky not to get a second goal towards the end.

“It is a massive win.”

There were jubilant scenes at the final whistle and Ward believes that Saturday’s victory will give the squad a lot of confidence to take into a crucial game against relegation rivals, Cardiff City, next week.

He said: “It’s a great win and some important points to take us in the right direction.

“It gives us a lot of confidence but we can’t take the challenge of the remaining games lightly starting with a big game at the weekend against Cardiff because those are the games that really matter, games like today are just a bonus.

“Results have gone for us a little bit as well, which is a big positive.

“We will prepare this week and be ready for the game on Saturday.”

Palace are now five points clear of the Premier League trapdoor in 16th.