BEN Watson’s double secured another league win for the Eagles on Saturday as Crystal Palace continued their rise up the Championship table.

Watson converted a penalty won on 25 minutes to give Palace the lead and then put added a second with a clinical finish from Nick Carle’s cross on the hour mark.

Shefki Kuqi put the outcome beyond doubt eight minutes from time.

But the double salvo from Watson, who spent the summer desperately trying to quit Selhurst Park, was the highlight for the Palace faithful who will be only too happy to forgive him if he continues playing like this.

Watson said: “I’m obviously delighted to get two goals, but I think it was important to get another win after the international break.

“The main thing today was a good performance and to get three points.

“It was difficult to miss the start of the season but these things happen.

“The more games you play, the fitter and sharper you get.

“We’ve played 11 games now and I’ve played six or seven, so I just want to get a run of games and keep doing what I’m doing.”

The Championship is so tight this year, Palace have emerged from the relegation places to within two points of the play-offs within a matter of weeks.

However, the midfield ace claimed it is still too early to be thinking about promotion.

He added: “Before the Barnsley game, we were three points off the play-offs and were 18th.

“It’s early days still. We’ve just got to go out and win our games and if we keep doing that, you never know what can happen.”

Palace’s third goal late on came from Kuqi late on, but the assist went to goalkeeper Julian Speroni and Watson admitted he has always been a fan.

He said: “To be fair, Julian has been fantastic for the last two or three years now since he’s got that spot as number one. He pulls out saves when we need him and his kicking tonight was fantastic.”

The Eagles went on a run last season to earn a play-off place and Watson found similarities with the four-game unbeaten run Palace are enjoying at the moment.

He explained: “It started with a 1-1 draw at Ipswich and last year we went to Cardiff and got a 0-0, but we’ve just got to keep putting pressure on teams and hassling them high up the pitch.

“We’re not a fluent passing team. We don’t mess around with the ball in our defensive third we just get the ball forward and do our thing from there.

“It’s working and that’s what we’re good at and we turned back to it and that’s why we’re winning.”

However, Watson acknowledged his side would have a tough time repeating their recent success at title favourites Birmingham City tomorrow evening.

He said: “They’ve got a strong squad coming down from the Premiership and the other week had £12million worth of players on the bench, but we will go there and give them a good game.

“I don’t think we’ve bought a player for over £1million, but we go out and give our all and we play like a team.

“The Ppremiership is where everyone wants to play.

“We were so close last year and hopefully this year we can have a bit more luck in our final push.”