What a shot in the arm this week has been for the football club.

It feels as though a weight has been lifted and once again we all find ourselves believing that survival both on and off the pitch is within reach.

On the field, our curse seems to have been lifted as we rode our luck on the way to a fantastic win in what some people were calling a nine-pointer against Watford.

I’d lost count of the number of occasions in the last couple of months where the team had given the opposition a real game but the luck hadn’t gone our way we didn’t get what we deserved from it.

But there we were at Vicarage Road 1-0 up at half-time after weathering a 30 minute storm of pressure that saw Watford hit the bar and post.

The players also did exceptionally well to push on after half-time to kill the game off rather than sitting back and attempting to hold on like so many Palace teams have failed to do over the years.

Hopefully, this result can reverse the ‘world is against us’ mindset the players have had and breed a real confidence about staying up which can only be a positive thing.

This is so important as it, to me, has a damaging mentality after the departure of Neil Warnock who used it so well to motivate the players.

That’s not Paul Hart's style and if it can be removed from the players' psyche then it can signal the beginning of him stamping his identity on to the team.

Arguably though, it is off-the-field where the most exciting progress has been made as Tuesday afternoon saw the administrator give the CPFC 2010 consortium preferred bidder status.

The identity of those involved is shrouded in secrecy but Steve Parish is believed to be at the forefront.

Simon Jordan will also need to be involved somewhere with rumours that he will be offered an equity stake in the club because, with the consortium already looking for further investment, I can’t see them being able to pay Simon Jordan off on top of Agilo, the HMRC and the purchase of the ground.

Indeed, if they can’t get a reasonable price to wrestle Selhurst Park from the grip of its administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers then the rescue plan will be scuppered.

Although if a deal can be reached then the talk of four or five local businessmen running Crystal Palace can only be seen as a positive thing.

We need to be put back on an even keel with sensible management by prudent businessmen, not idealists with five-year plans to get into the Champions League.

CPFC 1010 are the group to do that.

I have always seen the idea of being taken over by local people with some money as preferable to a foreign consortium with billions.

Anyone who heard the atmosphere the Palace faithful created on Tuesday night will know how special the soul of this club is and Parish and his group can safeguard that.

Caution needs to be exercised though, there is still a long way to go and we can’t afford to forget just how precarious a position we are still in.