“I don’t think I’ve been this relaxed for years,” Neil Warnock said before going on to praise the referee, Howard Webb. Strange times. When Warnock took charge last October, Coca-Cola League One looked a more likely destination for Crystal Palace than the Barclays Premier League. Palace lost at home to Watford in Warnock’s third game and were in the relegation zone, 21 points behind Adrian Boothroyd’s team, who were top. Now, Palace are one point below them.

Both clubs look set for the play-offs: cause for mourning in Hertfordshire and celebration in South London. This was Palace’s third successive victory; Watford have won once in 12 matches.

“Everyone thinks Watford have blown it, but we are still in there,” Boothroyd said. “I felt we were good enough to win this league and, if we had taken our chances and our home form had been better, we would have romped it. But this was like a lot of results here this season; teams come to defend, we don’t take our chances and they mug us at the end.”

Palace withstood Watford’s aerial blitz on Saturday and seized the points with goals in the second half from Paul Ifill, a substitute, and Victor Moses, a promising teenage winger.

Both sides are fortunate that the Premier League does not operate a quality control policy. “We’re limited in certain areas, but hopefully we make up for it with team ethic,” Warnock said. As for tactics: “We’ve got to be slightly different. If we played 4-4-2 like other teams, we’re not good enough.”

Palace’s success is clearly built on fragile foundations, but they may be strong enough to hold for another month. The rot has set in at Watford.

Watford (4-4-2): R Lee – L Doyley, L Bromby, D Shittu, J Stewart (sub: N Ellington, 88min) – T Smith, J Eustace, J-J O’Toole, J McAnuff (sub: M Sadler, 73) – D Henderson, T Priskin. Substitutes not used: J DeMerit, L Williamson, S Kabba. Booked: O’Toole, Shittu.

Crystal Palace (4-3-2-1): J Speroni – M Lawrence (sub: D Butterfield, 20), M Hudson, J Fonte, C Hill – T Soares, S Derry, B Watson – S Sinclair (sub: P Ifill, 66), V Moses – C Morrison (sub: C Fletcher, 84). Substitutes not used: L Hills, S Scannell. Booked: Butterfield, Morrison, Soares, Speroni. Referee: H Webb.