Goosebumps for Holloway over new role

Holloway was unveiled to the crowd at half-time, having joined from Blackpool on a four-and-a-half year deal earlier in the day, and watched from the stands as Glenn Murray's double strike moved the Eagles up to third in the table.

Holloway was delighted with what he was seeing when he spoke to the crowd. "How lucky are we to see a team like this? It's fantastic," he said. "I think I have got goosebumps on the back of my neck to get an opportunity like this."

He added: "People ask me why I have come here but the board sold me their dream about what they want for their club and with their energy and my energy let's hope we can all be very happy."

Palace were dominant throughout with Paul Robinson saving from Damien Delaney and Yannick Bolasie, who also hit the post before Murray converted Owen Garvan's cross to give them the lead in first-half stoppage time.

Murray got his second from the spot after he was fouled by Grant Hanley but missed the opportunity for a hat-trick when Robinson pulled off a fantastic double save from another penalty, after Bolasie was pushed by Adam Henley.

"They were fantastic," said Palace caretaker manager Curtis Fleming, who admitted he was unsure if he would join Dougie Freedman's team at Bolton Wanderers or stay at Palace. "I think they should be playing with confidence but we should concentrate on what we do and not get carried away. Everyone has to work hard."

Blackburn threatened just twice, with Dickson Etuhu hitting the bar and Morten Gamst Pederson forcing a good save out of Julian Speroni, leaving new Rovers boss Henning Berg with plenty to ponder after his first game in charge.

"It was neither the performance nor the result we would have liked," he said.

"We had a bad performance and I think we can be much better than this. We played against a good team but we expect to be better than this defensively and offensively. We played too much defence because we couldn't keep the ball well enough, especially first half, and we ended up defending a lot of crosses."

Source: PA

Source: PA