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Cape Town - Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew has revealed the team held a soul-searching meeting at the beginning of April, in a bid to get their campaign back on track.
After enduring a 14-game winless run in the league, Pardew saw his side drop from being a top four contender in the Premier League standings ahead of the Christmas break, to just nine points off the relegation zone in the second half of the season.
"We had a couple of meetings before the West Ham draw that were lively and where there was what you would call 'frank discussion'," the manager said.
"I had tried a couple of different meetings and different angles, and it didn’t work. The West Ham one was more me putting in front of them the facts.
"Sometimes you really need to look at the facts in the cold light of day from somebody who is leading the group.
"It's all well and good the media saying this and that, but that’s an opinion from somebody else.
"But when that opinion is mine and it's backed up with facts, then I think it wakes a few up.
"We woke up at West Ham and since then we've looked a different side."
The former Newcastle United manager came in for criticism over his coaching style recently, with some saying he never admits to having made a mistake, however the coach disagrees, adding that he's always invited criticism from his players.
"You can't manage at this level if you’re not going to sometimes say to the players: 'I got it wrong'," he said.
"Maybe that game-plan was wrong. Maybe, with hindsight, I shouldn’t have gone down that road... You can't just criticise the players who couldn't deliver the game-plan because, sometimes, the game-plan didn't work.
"Who's the finger pointing at then? Players can be reluctant to criticise the manager, so you have to give them an opportunity to do it in a way that isn't going to make them feel threatened, otherwise they might feel they're not going to get picked."
