Tony Pulis said his first victory as Crystal Palace boss adds to his belief that his new side can avoid relegation.Marouane Chamakh's header earned a 1-0 win over West Ham as Palace moved off the foot of the Premier League table."It's a great result and we have to put points on the board to give everybody hope," said the former Stoke manager."The fans were wonderful, but you have to win these games to give them the opportunity to do what I've come here to do, which is keep the club up."
But the second win in three games give Pulis a chance of maintaining his 21-year record of never being relegated.
The Eagles now face a crucial game against fourth-from-bottom Cardiff on Saturday and although Pulis was pleased with his side's efforts against West Ham, he said the scrappy win underlined his need to strengthen in the January transfer window.
Asked how hard his side had worked against the Hammers, he told BBC Sport: "Unbelievable. In the first 20 minutes we were on the back foot, we gave the ball away sloppily and looked pretty nervous but then we gradually got into the game and we scored a good goal.
"I'm very pleased for Chamakh, who has really worked hard since I came in the door and he and [fellow striker] Cameron Jerome looked a handful.
"For all of West Ham's possession, I think we most probably created the more clear-cut chances."
Pulis added: "[The win] will do everything for the group. We need to win our home games, so to get off to that sort of start is brilliant but everybody has put a shift in.
"We lacked a bit of quality at times, but we know that, so they have to work even harder when we don't have the ball.
"What [the fans] need is to see the players running around and having a go and giving it the best they possibly can.
"Fingers crossed when the window opens, if we can stay in touch with the rest of the group and we can can get a couple in - and we have to do that within the restrictions of the football club, I understand that - then that will give us another lift which we will need for the second half of the season."
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said: "I haven't got the words for it [the goal] when everybody has a marker and the ball comes in from the corner, you still have your marker, you don't lose your marker but we did and being in the middle of the goal with a free header they're not going to miss.
"That's the most disappointing thing for me because that's lost us the game effectively.
"On such a crucial game we should not have let that slip. A point at the end of the day wouldn't have been a bad result.
"It's all our fault."
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