Manager Paul Hart still believes Crystal Palace can escape relegation despite slipping back into the bottom three.

The Eagles led 2-0 against Blackpool at half time on Saturday thanks to goals from Nick Carle and Darren Ambrose, but Charlie Adam pulled one back two minutes after the restart and Ben Burgess completed the comeback with a minute left.

Scunthorpe's win against Plymouth Argyle saw them leapfrog Palace but Hart was convinced the first half display of his players showed they have enough to stay in the league.

"We are hopeful we can stay up," he said.

"No one said it was going to be an easy one but we have to keep hanging in there.

"I thought we played extremely well in the first half and once again there were some great defensive displays but unfortunately the goal so early in the second half was hard to swallow for us.

"We said at half time to keep going along the same lines and not to concede early but a fluffed clearance caused us a problem.

"They put their bodies on the line after that but we have to be a little bit cuter in certain situations.

"Having said that, if you had asked me before the game if we would have settled for a draw we may have done, but we did feel we could win it."

It was almost worse for Palace had Julian Speroni not produced an outstanding double save in injury time to secure a point.

"Julian is fantastic," said Hart.

"He must be one of the best keepers outside of the Premiership."