Crystal Palace's point at West Ham United represented another landmark under the tenure of Dougie Freedman.

The Eagles left East London with a goalless draw but were far from second best against the league leaders and arguably would have left with a win but for Rob Green.

The England goalkeeper made a string of first-half saves before Hammers boss Sam Allardyce made changes at the break and it was the Eagles who had to defend in the second half against a torrent of pressure - but they kept their home side down to just two good Sam Baldock chances.

Not many outside of the Palace set-up had given them much of a chance of taking anything from West Ham but Palace's performances have been good of late and Saturday's result has seen the rest of the Championship realise the Eagles can no longer be taken lightly after two years of struggle.

It is something Freedman, his players and the Palace supporters have known for a while.

"The mentality has changed," said Freedman.

"We no longer come to places like this and just expect to lie down and get beat.

"We are a young team that is trying different ways to get the win but still sticking to our beliefs that we don't get beat.

"We are a growing team, we could not go out in January and go and buy the strike force West Ham could.

"We are a growing club and we need to grow our own players and nurture them through and our performance levels have been high for a while, but we are not getting the results we merit."

Allardyce said Palace spoiled their game plan, but, although some managers would take that as an insult and a slight at his team, Freedman showed his class by accepting it as a compliment.

"It is a fantastic compliment for us," he said.

"It was a credit to our lads that we made them change shape and personnel at half time, it means we must have done something right.

"That is a huge compliment that Sam would say such a thing that we spoiled their game plan - why wouldn't we?

"In the second half, they spoiled ours because in the first half I thought we were going to win.

"We played well in the first half and created chances by moving the ball quickly and counter-attacking.

"We have worked on areas we could get shots from and I think we had our game plan nearly right in the first half in terms of where we got our shots from.

"West Ham are a good defensive team that stay compact and deep.

"When you have an England keeper in there he is going to save them and that was the difference - Robert Green."