Alan Pardew wants Martin Kelly to cement his place in the centre of Crystal Palace’s defence after giving him a start in his favoured position against Liverpool on Saturday.

The 25-year-old, who began his career with Liverpool, partnered Scott Dann at centre back in the Eagles’ 3-1 victory at Anfield.

After a nervy opening period, during which he gave the ball away to Adam Lallana to score Liverpool’s goal in the 26th minute, Kelly settled into life in central defence well and formed a strong partnership with Dann.

Pardew even admitted that there was sentiment in his decision to play the two men from Merseyside together on Steven Gerrard’s Anfield farewell.

The Crystal Palace manager said: “Part of me was emotion as well to play them together and make Scott Dann captain.

“If Martin is going to have a future at this football club, centre-half is his position in the long term.”

Goals from Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray earned Palace victory at Liverpool.

It was a seventh win away from home this season and one that ended a run of four straight Premier League defeats.

But Pardew thinks his side played just as well in their defeats by Manchester United and Chelsea in recent weeks as they did at Liverpool.

“It was a game where we wanted to show that we weren’t finished for the season because results don’t really reflect that,” Pardew said.

 “Our last few performances were terrific and we could have got something in those but we’ve proved today that they weren’t performances that were masking something.

“They were good performances and we could’ve won.

“We proved it on Saturday by doing a similar sort of performance but taking our chances.”

Pards added: “I just said to the players that we’ve given a level of performance that you've done at Manchester United and Chelsea but we've won today because the breaks fell our way and we, perhaps created a few more chances.

“The balance of the side was held by Marouane Chamakh and well supported by the runners in midfield.

“Yannick Bolasie has that power and fear factor in him that scares defenders and it was a really top performance from him and us.”

The Crystal Palace boss also praised his party-spoiling side for the way they came from behind to end a four-game losing streak, despite all of the attention being on the departing Anfield legend.

He said: “I’m delighted with the way we played and conducted ourselves in what was Steven Gerrard’s day really.

News Shopper:

“We talked about it we knew what was going to happen - it was Steven Gerrard’s day.

“The narrative is still Stevie - and so it should be for his career - but we’ve played our part, we gave our best performance and that’s all we could do.”

Palace end their campaign at home to Swansea knowing a point would mean they better last season’s tally of 45.

But if there is one area of concern for the Eagles it is their poor home record with just five wins at Selhurst Park compared to seven on the road.

Pardew, though, called on his players to end the season on a high in front of their own fans and build on another excellent season in the next campaign.

He admitted: “We've been terrific away from home, but haven't got the balance at home.

“A win against Swansea could put us in the top ten.

 “It must be quite exciting for the chairman and the board. We are solid financially and with a few additions we could challenge for top eight.”

Follow @NewsShopperSprt for live updates from the Swans clash