Joel Ward admitted it was Wilfried Zaha’s late first half opener which swung Saturday’s game at Norwich in Crystal Palace’s favour.

The newly-promoted Canaries dominated the opening exchanges and were unlucky not to have raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes.

But Ward and his defensive colleagues kept their cool under the onslaught and reaped the rewards when Zaha met Jason Puncheon’s cross six minutes before the break to set the Eagles on their way to a 3-1 victory.

Ward said: “It was a tough game played in tough conditions with the heat.

“They played well and I think we dug in deep.

“We did that for large parts of the game and showed our resilience scoring at vital times and were clinical in our finishing.”

The full-back added: “It was very important we got the first goal.

“We were fortunate perhaps because they came close a couple of times before we scored.

“Fortunately for us they didn’t capitalise and then we had a couple of chances and made them pay.

“I think that is down to the quality we have in our side now and we can do that.

“We showed today even when sometimes things don’t go your way we showed great resilience, took our chances and got a vital three points on the board.”

Palace are being widely predicted to do well this season, although the fixture list has thrown up some big names in the opening weeks.

Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City will all have to be taken on in the coming weeks, although Ward isn’t looking too far ahead just yet.

“We know we’ve got a tough start to the season but you can only take one game at a time, set ourselves some goals and do everything we can to come out of the game with some points.”

It is Arsenal up next in front of the TV cameras at Selhurst Park on Sunday lunchtime.

And even though the Gunners began the new season with a shock 2-0 home defeat at the hands of West Ham, Ward accepts it would still be considered a surprise if Palace could put another early dent in Arsene Wenger’s title hopes.

“Yeah, I think so but we’ve got to go out there and play our game,” the defender said.

“I think we gave them a good game last year and were unfortunate maybe not to get something from both of the games we played against them.

“It would be nice to get a result against them because we haven’t beaten them since we’ve been back in the Premier League.

“We are growing in confidence and we know they are going to be a force but if we are on our game then we’ve got every chance.”

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