Patrick van Aanholt's winner against Middlesbrough moves Sam Allardyce's Eagles in the right direction

Sam Allardyce can, on occasion, look somewhat pleased with himself, like the cat that got the cream.

But, on a drizzly afternoon in south London, 25,416 people witnessed a Crystal Palace victory that felt almost entirely of his own making.

The Eagles did not overcome the most testing of foes in Middlesbrough, but they did get back to winning ways and rise out of the relegation zone with a performance that was unrecognisable from what had come before.

Palace had gone from a team treading water at the end of Alan Pardew’s reign to one that was simply drowning when Sunderland came to Selhurst Park and comprehensively stuffed their hosts at the start of this month.

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The expected ‘Allardyce bounce’ did not materialise but the former England manager had been keen, in recent engagements with the press, to ensure the world knew this was not his fault.

Allardyce had criticised his players’ mindset, their focus and their ability to follow simple orders among a much longer list of gripes. Two weeks of intensive training - concentrating on fitness, defensive positioning and set pieces - with no matches has not been fun for the players, but there were visible, obvious improvements in the team’s play.

Stuffing three January signings - his signings - into the team on the back of a fortnight on the training ground, Allardyce was taking ownership of this situation in the same way he had implored his players to pre-match.

And those three new arrivals all played key roles in this win, particularly in a first half where Middlesbrough offered little and Palace got the game’s only goal. On the one real occasion Boro threatened before the break, and it appeared that they could have had a penalty, replays showed that debutant Mamadou Sakho’s tackle had been inch-perfect where the naked eye had left doubt.

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It was a first Palace start for Sakho and a first senior start for him since Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Everton in April. He replaced the ageing Damien Delaney and, for all the Irishman’s service to Palace, Sakho’s composure and Delaney’s recent displays suggest that the Liverpool loanee won’t be relinquishing his spot in the starting XI any time soon.

His crucial toe-poked tackle repelled Boro’s only real attack in a first half where Palace had plenty, but they had looked like they would be frustrated until Patrick van Aanholt arrived from left-back to open the scoring shortly before the break.

It was not a spectacular goal, and Aitor Karanka will be disgusted with how pitifully his team defended a high ball, but Van Aanholt was the most aware player on the field as he drove towards the penalty area and guided a right-footed shot around traffic and goalkeeper Victor Valdes into the far corner.

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The goal had originated from central midfield where Palace, for so long shorn of security in the middle of the park, could rely on new signing Luka Milivojevic for calm. It was the Serbian international’s pass that had found Van Aanholt to begin that move and he was the starting point for much of the good Palace did on Saturday afternoon.

His arrival is part of a slight change in culture at Palace, and there was a moment towards the end of the first half that showed this transition was still ongoing. Yohan Cabaye picked up the ball in the centre circle and looked up, ignoring a gesture from Milivojevic to calm down and keep possession, and struck a sand-wedge pass over the defence for Andros Townsend to chase. The through ball was dangerous but just too long and Cabaye turned to nod, knowingly, at his central midfield partner.

Under Pardew, that might have been encouraged.

But this is a new regime, and while that has been the case for some time, since December in fact, it is only now that it is finally starting to feel like it.

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Allardyce’s new, preferred central-midfield pairing boasts Champions League experience and for all James McArthur’s industry and eye for goal, Milivojevic provides a level of control that isn’t natural to the Scot. Milivojevic is muscular with a rangy stride but plays mainly with his head – he was always the first Palace player to provide cover in the transition and it blessed a central-defensive partnership that had never played together with a security blanket.

Spending two weeks with Allardyce might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it has done Crystal Palace a world of good, reviving a team that had looked lost in January to one that might well find itself in the coming weeks.

Palace could have won more handsomely had referee Bobby Madley not been so accommodating to the robust and occasionally just bad tackles from a desperate Boro, but Scott Dann was thrown on to form a back five and hold out Middlesbrough’s cavalry.

When the cavalry is Rudy Gestede, everything usually turns out alright.

Allardyce and Palace will face tougher tests than this; their run-in is rough and their performance had some kinks that could be ironed out.

But this was a step in the right direction, and one of the manager’s making.

Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey, Ward, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt, Milivojevic, Townsend, Cabaye, Puncheon, Zaha, C Benteke.

Middlesbrough (4-4-2): Valdés, Bernardo, Ayala, Gibson, Fabio, Forshaw, de Roon, Stuani, Ramírez, Downing, Negredo.