Swansea City: Paul Clement made presence felt, says Alan Curtis

Paul Clement (left) joined Swansea on Tuesday while Alan Curtis (right) has been with the club as a player and coach since the 1970s

New Swansea City boss Paul Clement "made his presence felt" during half-time of their vital 2-1 win over Crystal Palace, according to first-team coach Alan Curtis.

Angel Rangel's winner lifted the Swans off the bottom of the Premier League hours after Clement's appointment.

The ex-Derby boss started in the stands, but later joined the coaching team on the touchline.

"He came down for moral support, he made his presence felt," said Curtis.

"But there was not too much to say. We would have surprised a lot of people with our performance today."

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Clement's appointment as Swansea's third head coach of a turbulent season came in the afternoon before the game at Selhurst Park, but joined Curtis in the dugout during the match.

Swansea led 1-0 at the interval before Wilfried Zaha's stunning equaliser levelled things with less than 10 minutes remaining.

Angel Rangel joined Swansea City in 2007

Defender Rangel's winning goal was his first for the club since 2013.

The win lifted Swansea to 19th place - one point away from safety.

"It is a terrific result for us and a huge three points," said Curtis.

"The first-half performance, we were excellent and we could have gone in with more than the one goal. We have been accused of lacking character but we came back and won it and I thought we deserved it.

"In training you can see the players have the ability, it is just the confidence that has been lacking. We deserved some luck today.

"Any team under Sam Allardyce will come on strongly, they have some terrific players. We had 24 hours more rest compared to them and that may have made a difference."