George Burley apologised to Crystal Palace fans after the Eagles' dire 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

More than 700 supporters braved the snow to make the trip to the City Ground but saw Palace brushed aside with ease after goals from Luke Chambers, Marcus Tudgay and Garath McCleary.

It took some fans nine hours to get home and Burley admitted they deserved a better performance.

“I apologise to the fans because we've got to be better than that,” he said.

“It was a game where we never got going and we gave poor goals away.

“Julian Speroni made some good saves but our defending was poor.

“The manner in which we gave our goals away was disappointing and we didn't deserve anything.

“You give players responsibility at set pieces and general play and they let us and the fans down.”

Midfielder Neil Danns also apologised to to supporters, saying on Twitter: “Sorry to all the travelling fans that was an unacceptable performance, we really appreciate your support.”

With a permanent deal for Alex Marrow understood to be close, Burley is also targeting another five signings next month to get the Eagles out of relegation trouble.

“We will be looking to strengthen the squad in January as our options are limited at the moment,” he said.

“Some of our loan players could go back which would give us an option to get new ones in and we have pinpointed some that we want.

“The owners are aware what we need to do and I think we need to do our utmost to bring four or five players in when the window opens.”

Palace's defeat at Forest was their fifth away loss in a row, their worst run on the road in the league since the start of the 2003 season – which ended in promotion to the Premier League.

Palace's next three games: Dec 26 Norwich City (h), 28 Bristol City (a), Jan 1 Millwall (a).