Keith Millen filled in for the recently-sacked Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew as the club waited to announce his replacement, with former England manager Sam Allardyce travelling to London on Friday in an attempt to finalise a deal to get back into football management.

Allardyce left the England job in September 67 days after replacing Roy Hodgson when he was caught up in an undercover journalist sting offering to give advice on how to get around third-party ownership rules that are implemented by his employers, the Football Association.

Allardyce has had to wait just three months before an opportunity arose to get back into management though, with The Independent revealing on Thursday that Palace approached him two weeks before they sacked Pardew.

The decision left Palace without a manager for their pre-match press conference ahead of the Boxing Day trip to Watford, so assistant manager Millen had to fill in to speak to the media for the second time in three years, having filled the hot seat shortly after Neil Warnock was sacked in 2014.

“The club can't confirm who is coming in at this stage, so I'm doing today's press conference to save you all from waiting all day,” Millen revealed when asked about Allardyce.

“I spoke to the players this morning and the chairman last night, he asked me to take training today.

“It's amazing how resilient players can be. We've got a big game against Watford coming up. I've been told to prepare the team [for Watford]. So I'm preparing, trying to pick a team we can win with.”