It was lovely heading to Selhurst Park on Saturday evening feeling excitement rather than dread for the first time in months.

Don’t get me wrong, for Alan Pardew's first league game in charge there wasn’t blind faith.

I still worried that an in-form Spurs would kill the positivity, and Christian Eriksen should have done early on - still unsure how his chance went wide.

However, when Palace have gone behind in recent weeks the atmosphere has been instantly subdued at Selhurst Park, everyone preparing for the inevitable slaughter or surrender.

The best thing about the Harry Kane opener was that the noise and encouragement from the home support didn't dip - it just got louder.

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This was rewarded 20 minutes later, as Joe Ledley was undoubtedly tripped for the penalty before Dwight Gayle showed impressive confidence and composure to bury the equaliser.

The second Palace substitution paid dividends when Glenn Murray made way for Wilfried Zaha, meaning Gayle could move into the centre.

Zaha looked reborn, particularly during his assist for the Palace winner. He had one of those games where every trick, flick and decision came off.

Week after week after week I moaned about Neil Warnock’s terrible substitutions, so this was a breath of fresh air.

In fact, an understated positive with Pardew so far has been his openness to give anybody and everybody a chance.

He doesn’t appear to have come into the club weighed down by preconceptions.

Murray’s start was heartening, and the striker came a half-inch of Hugo Lloris' leg away from putting the Eagles ahead.

Barry Bannan had an average first half but it was good to see the small Scot get into the team, especially in a central position.

Adlène Guedioura replaced Bannan at half time in an inspired switch, his strength and range of passing added extra bite and spark to the midfield.

On January 11 2014, almost a year ago to the day, Jason Puncheon missed a penalty against Spurs which is still in orbit somewhere around the globe.

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Maybe the hatchet was never properly buried with Warnock for the manager’s comments after that miss (and the ensuing Twitter remarks from Puncheon, threats of legal action etc.), but the winger has seemed like he’s been playing under a cloud for months.

Suddenly, with a new boss the winger was holding the ball up well, making clever passes, dribbling past opponents and finally topping everything off with a beautifully controlled finish in the 80th minute.

All this confident buoyancy under Pardew gives me the sense that the cocksure manager may have found a great fit in our south London side.

Obviously, we’re only one game into things and need to get at least another 20 points before we can start breaking out the champagne, but what a great start.

To stay grounded I find it helps to remind myself that even Ian Holloway won at home in the Premier League.