Sam Allardyce has admitted losing the England job was one of the “darkest moments” of his career.

Allardyce was sacked just 67 days into the role after making ill-advised comments while in conversation with undercover reporters in a newspaper sting.

The 62-year-old is back in management three months later after taking over at Crystal Palace, agreeing a two-and-a-half-year deal on Friday night.

Allardyce had always described the England manager’s role as his dream job and, in an interview with Sky Sports, he has described how low he felt after his dismissal.

“The first four weeks was something that was one of the darkest moments in my career, certainly the early reaction, which was a bit hysterical to say the least, looking back on it,” he said.

“I’m talking about me and my wife and my family, we all had to deal with that problem - my children, my grandchildren at school. But eventually time passes by, you overcome those adversities and you move on. Moving on for me is taking this job.”

Allardyce has replaced Alan Pardew at Selhurst Park and been handed the task of keeping Palace in the Premier League. The former Bolton, Blackburn, Newcastle and West Ham manager took his first training session on Saturday morning in preparation for his first match, at Watford on Boxing Day.

Palace are one point above the relegation zone having won only once in their past 11 matches. The situation is nothing new to Allardyce, however. When he took over at Sunderland last October they were 19th with three points from their first eight games.

“You’ve got to do it, it’s part of the quick process to try to turn around a difficult situation at the moment,” he said. “It’s not as difficult as the position Sunderland were in, I don’t think.”