After taking to the Selhurst Park grass one last time in Julian Speroni's testimonial, former Eagles star Matt Lawrence is one of many delighted that the pitch is being replaced.

The match saw a Crystal Palace XI beat a Dundee XI 4-3, but the nature of support from Dundee fans on a Tuesday night impressed those in SE25.

Dundee manager Paul Hartley – who worked with Keith Millen at Bristol City – even talked about a possible link-up between the two clubs.

However, the night will be remembered as a homage to the Palace custodian, and Lawrence was quick to praise his former team-mate.

The 40-year-old said: “Coming back was wonderful. The fans were wonderful and it’s just a real testament to Jules’ career and to him as a person - the money is all going to charity and that says it all.

“I can’t speak highly enough of him – he’s a man of very few words – a wonderful goalkeeper and wonderful person.

“He’s got another year contract at the club – it was just fantastic. The crowd were so loud, I’m proud for them and for Jules, it was magnificent that 1,700 Dundee fans came down."

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He added jokingly: “But the pitch was disgraceful. The last time I saw that many divots was when I played golf.”

Many will remember Lawrence as part of a tight-knit group of players at Palace from 2006 to 2010 when the club was threatened relegation to the third tier of football and near extinction.

“Ha - the boy band,” said the former Wycombe player when asked about reuniting on the pitch with Danny Butterfield for the testimonial..

“But I’m never any good without the bassist, I missed the bassist [Shaun Derry].

“It was fun and good to speak to Danny, but a bit of a shame that Clint Hill and Shaun Derry weren’t available.

"Paddy McCarthy wanted to come too but he had an ankle injury and was in Dubai, I’ve really missed those guys.”

Lawrence was quick to defer to Speroni when asked about his most memorable moment at the Eagles, but his last game for the club in May 2010 when the boys in red and blue had to avoid defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in the final game of the season to stay in the Championship stays long in the memory.

“I’m never really a good person to remember games,” said Lawrence.

“But my last game was at Hillsborough and it was a rear-guard action for a lot of the time and Julian was a big part of that.

“It was unbelievable, you never want to celebrate avoiding relegation, it sounds contradictory, but at the time the club was in a really bad place. If Palace had gone down, then who knows?

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“But then the four guys – the four knights in shining armour [new owners] – they maybe were or were not coming in – but they did and now the club is just moving from strength to strength and I love coming back.”

Move on they have – Palace finished in their second highest ever top-flight position (10th) last season and everyone connected with the club will be raising their expectations.

However, Lawrence, who scored just one goal in his Palace career, is confident his former side can fulfil the new-found demands on them.

“They have to move on,” he said, “but there’s going to be a bigger expectation for Palace next season.

"They need to invest; I am not privy to the budget, but they need to invest down the spine of the team with a big hitting centre forward, centre midfielder and maybe a centre half to move to that next level - that next level is finishing in the top eight, but it’s going to be incredibly hard."

He added: "Palace have always been in the Premier League without any expectation, but now there’s a huge expectation not only on their shoulders but from fans at other clubs.

“It’s going to be hard, but with Alan Pardew at the helm I think they’re up to it.”