Alan Pardew is due to take his place in the Crystal Palace hot-seat today [Friday] after watching Thursday’s 0-0 draw at Aston Villa.

The stalemate, Palace’s second consecutive blank, leaves then in the bottom three of the Premier League.

Pardew, who played no part in the preparation for the match, congratulated the players after the final whistle, but caretaker boss Keith Millen revealed the new manager in waiting was not slow in pointing out areas that require improvement.

Millen said: “I spoke to Alan before the game, he did not interfere with tactics and just said for us to get on with it.

“Hopefully he can bring in an extra element to the side, with maybe a couple of new players and make us a better team because we have got to win football matches to stay in this league.”

He added: “Alan came into the dressing room after the game and congratulated the players on their effort and commitment.

“But he did say we’ve got to improve going forward and we’ve got to look like we’re going to score.”

Yannick Bolasie had the best chance to beat Villa but his excellent run and shot was thwarted by the crossbar.

In a match of few chances, Julian Speroni was called into action rarely – most notably to deny Alan Hutton from close range.

Millen said: “We kept our discipline and shape, we looked dangerous on the counterattack and had the best chance of the game.

“I am delighted with the commitment and organisation, but to win football matches you’ve got to take your chances.”

He added: “Yannick, Wilf [Zaha] and Jason [Puncheon] up front give us some good pace and that created the chance of the game, but unfortunately he hit the crossbar.

“If that goes in it would have been very hard for Villa to get back into it.”

Palace, who have only scored six goals in the past 10 games, including just one in the past six away games, go to Dover Athletic in the third round of the FA Cup this weekend.

Dover, of the Vanarama Conference Premier, are 16 games unbeaten and sit 12th in the table.