''The players who don't give up are the ones who go that extra yard; they're the ones who get 'there' and go further.''

The Championship thrives on such a spirit because it is a competition crammed with teams desperate to be promoted to the Premier League. Testimony to the demands placed on the likes of one-time heavyweights such as Palace, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday was third-placed Palace's match schedule over the Christmas-New Year period - four games in 10 days.

''We play on the 22nd, on Boxing Day, the 29th and the 1st,'' Jedinak said. ''We play away in Cardiff on Boxing Day so we'll leave on Christmas Day [afternoon] to play that one.

''This weekend marks the halfway point of our season. It'll be our 23rd game already; the games come thick and fast and every one of them is hard. There's never an easy match because no team gives up; you have to be prepared to give everything. If you think you can get away with an 85 per cent or 90 per cent effort you'll be found out.

''People are motivated. Even at this stage [of the season] no-one can pick who might be promoted because the table is so tight and it only takes a run of four or five games - and we have that chance over the next 10 days - to break free.''