Alan Pardew can see the true Crystal Palace slowly returning to the Premier League fight after the 1-1 draw at Swansea City on Saturday.

The point, by virtue of Scott Dann’s fifth league goal of the season, arrested a run of five consecutive league defeats that had seen the Eagles drop to 12th in the table.

Dann, who is now club’s joint leading goal-scorer in all competition, was on hand in the second half to level Gyfli Sigurdsson first half free-kick.

The match also featured a debut for Emanuel Adebayor, who lasted virtually the whole game before being replaced by Fraizer Campbell in the final five minutes.

Despite the Togo international’s goal-scoring potential, Pardew admitted the Eagles still lacked sharpness going forward.

He said: “Emanuel had some lovely moments. He is competitive and feels part of the group, you can see that.

“I could not have asked any more from him from the period he has been with us.

“I probably played him for too long today, bit I thought it was important that he got as many minutes as he could.”

He added: “We are still lacking a little going forward, but Dwight [Gayle] and Connor [Wickham] are coming back, and with this point armouring our confidence we can kick on.

“We looked like we had some of our old self back and we are going to need it because Watford will be a tricky game.”

Pardew admitted the five-match run without a win or a point had started to play on his mind, and that words were said in the changing room at half-time.

“I sensed some anguish and tension because we had not had a result,” he said.

“After the break, you could see there was a reaction to the half time chat, we needed to play the game, we were playing with our brakes on and carrying a weight on our shoulders and we needed to free ourselves up.

“But we’re off 31 points, it was beginning to become a problem for us, and it feels like a win.”