Joe Ledley: Crystal Palace should turn their focus to the Cups

Confident: Ledley would love to see Palace get to Wembley
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Wally Downes24 September 2015

Joe Ledley believes Crystal Palace should target the Cups now they have consolidated their place in the Premier League.

Since their promotion in 2013, top-flight survival has been the focus for the club. They have achieved that — finishing 11th and 10th in the last two seasons — but have not made an impact in the knock-out competitions, their best performance reaching the fifth round of the FA Cup last term.

Palace have never won that competition or the League Cup — their only piece of silverware being the Zenith Data Systems triumph in 1991.

After last night’s third‑round Capital One Cup victory over Charlton, Ledley (right) said Palace should now expand their targets.

“I think this club need a Cup final at Wembley now, just to get there and see how we go,” Ledley said.

“The club have been doing everything right and it would be nice to see how we did.

“I made an FA Cup Final with Cardiff when we were playing in the Championship and, it doesn’t matter who you play, you just need a little bit of luck and you can leave with the trophy.”

Unfortunately for Palace their hopes of reaching Wembley took a dent last night when they were drawn away to Premier League leaders Manchester City in the fourth round.

Palace lost 1-0 at home to City earlier this month and were then beaten by Tottenham but Ledley believes the squad can meet the growing expectations at the club.

“We know how hard this start has been,” said Ledley. “We’ve played some of the top teams in the division. We want to push ourselves and get to the next level.

“We have a fantastic team, not just the people in the starting XI, but also those that aren’t always involved but are always working hard and pushing the people ahead of them.

“That’s what you need and, hopefully, we can get our League form back and go from there.”

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