Alan Pardew has declared that “something must give” as he prepares his Crystal Palace side to face Southampton in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Ahead of tomorrow’s clash, the Eagles boss hailed his former employers as the model club, but with a warning that things can change very quickly.

Palace go into the game on the back of three consecutive wins, including two Premier League wins after coming from behind.

The Saints, under boss Ronald Koeman, are unbeaten in eight games – including wins at Manchester United and over Arsenal at St Mary’s.

Pardew said: “You have two teams with momentum, and something has to give, and we don’t want it be us.

“The Cup is the same as any other game I enter. The preparation will be flawless.

“We’ll come up with a tactical game plan, sometimes it works, sometimes the players can see it and produce the performance to see the plan through.

“Sometimes they can’t, sometimes the manager has the players in the wrong position or they could not perform on the day.

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“But our preparation is thorough but it will be a tough game.”

He added: “Southampton are probably the model club right now, but when I finished fifth with Newcastle United, we were the model, and then we weren’t the model.

“The Premier League shifts so quickly and you have to keep up with the times, and at the moment Saints are making that adjustment.

“That’s the key – to be a model club over five to 10 years you have to move quickly and keep pace with the Premier League.”

Pardew spent 14 months at Southampton from July, 2009, and was sacked despite leading the club to the Johnstone's Paint Trophy the following, and keeping them in League One despite starting the season on minus 10 points.

However, despite the manner of his departure, Pardew is looking forward to returning to the south coast.

“The organisation that was in place at Southampton when I was there was good,” he said.

“We were in League One, we signed Lambert, Hammond, Fonte, we gave a debut to Chamberlain, Ward-Prowse trained with me, Llalana burst through.

“There’s a lot of that still there, a lot of what we put in place, and they have built very well around it and on it and they now have a terrific group of young players, complemented by internationals.”

He added: “It was unusual to lose your job after winning 4-0 away at Bristol Rovers, but that was how it was. I didn’t moan about it. I felt I did a good job there, and moved on.

“It’s always nice to go back to your old club because there are people there who you love and you want to see, and I am looking forward to seeing a few friends there.”

Wimbledon Times:

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