Crystal Palace 1 West Ham 0: Tony Pulis hopes Marouane Chamakh and fellow strikers can keep Eagles in the Premier League

The former Stoke manager saw his side win his first home game in charge

Marouane Chamakh finally finds the back of the net for Crystal Palace (Getty Images)

Tony Pulis hopes he has a strikeforce capable of keeping Crystal Palace's season alive until the January transfer window opens.

Marouane Chamakh's first-half header sealed a precious 1-0 win over fellow strugglers West Ham on Tuesday night to lift the Eagles off the foot of the Barclays Premier League.

The victory leaves Palace, who looked doomed when previous boss Ian Holloway quit six weeks ago, only three points from safety.

Pulis appears to be getting the best out of Chamakh and fellow forward Cameron Jerome and the new Eagles manager wants the duo to keep his side in with a shout of survival so that he can bring in some reinforcements in the new year.

"Chamakh and Cameron never stopped running," he said.

"Their effort and commitment gave everyone a lift. Chamakh has got good quality and is a good player, he just needs some confidence and hopefully that goal will give him some confidence to grow into the player we need.

"The players have been fantastic, absolutely wonderful from the first minute we walked in. We need to strengthen, we need to bring a bit more quality in with what club can afford - but we need to stay in the race by the time the window opens."

Chamakh had only previously found the net once this season - which was still one goal more than he managed in five months on loan with West Ham last term.

But in the 42nd minute Barry Bannan whipped in a cross and the much-maligned Moroccan glanced in what proved to be the winner.

West Ham were unhappy at being denied an equaliser when Stewart Downing's goal was ruled out for an apparent foul in the area by James Tomkins.

Their frustration was illustrated by the sight of Ravel Morrison shoving Palace's Joel Ward in the face after the final whistle, for which the England Under-21 midfielder escaped with a booking.

"I've been told there was an incident but I wouldn't like to comment," said assistant manager Neil McDonald.

"I'm more annoyed that that's his fifth booking so that's a suspension.

"I think it's out of frustration that we didn't get anything out of the game. We feel a bit hard done by with the goal that we scored that was given as a foul.

"That stopped us getting on the front foot and getting back into the game."

PA