Pardew hopes warning from England rugby's Jones can inspire Palace
(Reuters) - Manager Alan Pardew said Crystal Palace has been warned by England rugby head coach Eddie Jones not to be complacent after they booked their place in the FA Cup final with a 2-1 victory over Watford on Sunday.
Jones was invited to Palace's training ground Beckenham on Thursday to speak and advise Pardew's backroom staff and members of the first team.
"He had a few words to the team about complacency and what good teams do. The most important point he made was that great teams can get to finals but great teams only win finals if they're great all the time," Pardew told British media.
"We can't turn up at Newcastle and let our standards slip from Sunday's FA Cup semi-final, otherwise we're doing a disservice to our fans and ourselves," he said.
"Then he came on to the training pitch and addressed the starting eleven. It was very kind of him to do that. He gave a lot of examples of how communication between the team and the coaches is important, and the players just absorbed it."
Pardew has previously invited sports psychologist Jeremy Snape and former England international Teddy Sheringham to speak with and motivate his players, who have won once in the Premier League over their last 18 matches.
With just three games left, Palace, who are 16th in the league and eight above the bottom three, travel to take on relegation-threatened Newcastle United at St James' Park on Saturday.
(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Heinrich)