The administrator has moved extremely quickly to appoint Paul Hart this week after the eventual departure of Neil Warnock.

Something about the manner in which Warnock has engineered his move to QPR has left a bad taste.

I am one of Neil Warnock’s biggest fans, I found him charming, passionate and entertaining but in the last week he has looked a shadow of the Warnock we had come to respect.

This bluff, straight talking Yorkshireman, famous for his fiery temper and strong opinions seems to have just left through the back door with a bit of a whimper, not fighting tooth and nail as I thought he would.

I expected more from him.

And anyone who has seen us play in the last week or so will know that all this speculation has affected the performances from the players by adding yet more uncertainty to the situation at the club.

Palace captain Shaun Derry confirmed the will-he-won’t-he saga surrounding Warnock was starting to distract the squad from the imperative need to maintain our Championship status this term.

He said: “There has been a lot of attention surrounding his departure and in a way I am happy that it has all been resolved so that we can now crack on for the rest of the season and still try to achieve the aim that we had when we went into administration.”

For these reasons I am inclined to believe Brendan Guilfoyle when he said Warnock’s focus was “no longer on securing the club's status in the Championship.”

So in a way, no matter how disappointing his departure may be, it is probably the best thing for the football club.

The upside of this situation though, was the time it gave for potential candidates to be considered.

Steve Coppell was, of course, the clear favourite both with the bookies and the Palace faithful, so understandably the appointment of Paul Hart was received by many as an uninspiring decision.

His career so far, on paper, seems to suggest that fans are right to be sceptical about his ability to save the club from relegation given his career statistics reading more defeats than victories at every club he has taken charge of.

Indeed, initially it had shades of Trevor Francis’s appointment when our exciting manager at the time Steve Bruce was poached by Birmingham City and we ended up with their dour former boss Francis.

But the more you think about the decision the more it makes sense.

First and foremost he managed to keep cash-strapped Pompey in the Premier League last season after taking charge of just 14 games, the exact number he has to work with here.

Secondly he likes to play good attacking football which could mean that the strongest area of our team, the midfield, can be fully utilised.

Last, but not least, someone has shown the forethought and judgement to integrate Dougie Freedman and John Pemberton into the new set-up.

Freedman in particular is a major coup for Guilfoyle and Phil Alexander as his involvement will ensure the unequivocal backing of the fans.

You only had to hear how the Scot spoke about Palace on the London Late Kick Off Show on Monday night to realise just how much he cares for the club so it's comforting to know there is someone like that involved.

All in all I think Paul Hart can do a good job here but needs to be given the benefit of the doubt and the support in order to do it.