Shaun Derry has revealed that seeing the club drop into the bottom three for the first team this season has provided a sharp reality-check for the Crystal Palace players.

Speaking after the game against Coventry on Saturday, the Palace skipper admitted that although it sounded "weird" he was looking at the drop in the league as a positive.

"Well I would like to look at it [dropping into the relegation zone] as a positive. I know this is going to seem weird, but we knew we were in a trouble three or four weeks ago, we knew that we were gong to have some hard times, so hopefully this beats home that we are in a relegation fight.

"Results haven't gone for us. Some would say our performances haven't been too clever since the Scunthorpe game, aside from the cup game, but we are where we are. We are in a position that was forced upon us but it is only up to ourselves to get us out of it.

"I don't want to sound glad we are in the bottom three, but it hits home now. You look at the league and the league doesn't lie, we are there for a reason and we have got try our hardest to get out of it."

The frustrations of dropping to 22nd place has been compounded by the relentless rumours surrounding Neil's future as Crystal Palace manager.

Shaun admitted that he is not aware of any decision either way, but admitted that while Neil is manager of Crystal Palace the players are fully behind him.

"There are a lot of rumours floating around, but we are under no illusions either way really. He has not given us any impression whether he is staying or going so while he is here we fully respect the manager, he respects us as players.

"Everyone has gone on record to say he is the man for us and only the administrators and Neil know what is going on. All we can do is put in performances, for whoever, on the pitch."

Palace Player subscribers can watch the full press conference right now by clicking here.

To find out more about our Player service and how you can sign up for as little as £3.99 a month then click here.