The quicker we can block the memory of Saturday out of our minds the better.

I haven’t seen such a timid display from a Palace side in a very long time.

Don’t get me wrong I’ve seen bad performances but never with so little fight.

We were outplayed throughout. Our midfield and full-backs were overloaded and our defensive frailty from corners reared its ugly head yet again.

Normally I would be despairing at such a performance but there are mitigating factors here.

The biggest of which was Neil Warnock, who, let's not forget knows our players inside-out, knows how we play and worst of all knew our weaknesses.

He knew for instance that Danny Butterfield could be exploited by pace, that by stifling Neil Danns and Darren Ambrose he was cutting off any quality supply to the strikers and that our lack of width can leave our full-backs over exposed at times.

That sort of inside knowledge is invaluable and was probably the key to the way QPR were able to dominate for the entire 90 minutes.

Another reason to forgive the result was the injuries to Calvin Andrew and Alan Lee, who seemed to be pivotal to our game plan.

There was no clearer example of this than the impact Lee had on the game in his brief second-half cameo.

For those 10 or so minutes that we had a physical presence up front we looked like a completely different team.

This is why we need to forget Saturday's game and instead look ahead to what is going to be a pivotal weekend that will go a long way to deciding who beats the drop this season.

We travel to Derby in what is probably the most winnable of our remaining games while Sheffield Wednesday have to contend with a Sheffield derby.

Meanwhile, Watford face a tough rip to the Walkers and Scunthorpe host in-form Bristol City.

When looking at those fixtures of the teams in this relegation fight, we should stand the best chance of getting a result, but that’s not the way football is.

If it were I’d actually get an accumulator right one day.

Out of those games that could have an impact on us, the game I fear most is Sunday’s steel city derby.

United have been a mixed bag this season despite their lofty league position and I dare to think what a home win will do for Wednesday’s confidence going into the final two games of the season.

On the other hand, a defeat for Wednesday could have a catastrophic effect on team-spirit and provoke a nasty reaction from their increasingly disillusioned home support.

But, no matter what happens around us this weekend, the most important thing for Palace fans is that the players show that Saturday’s abject performance was merely a blip and recapture the sort of form they had been showing the previous two weeks.

If we can, we can beat anyone in this league and stand every chance of staying up without having to worry about results elsewhere.

If not, but for the grace of the footballing Gods, we will be relegated.