PALACE defender Peter Ramage says he didn't come off social networking site Twitter due to abuse he and other players have received from a number of fans.
The 29-year-old and central defensive partner Damien Delaney both came off Twitter just hours after Easter Monday's 1-0 defeat at Blackpool but, according to the former Newcastle United man, it wasn't planned together.
"I had been talking about coming off Twitter and we didn't realise we had both come off it within a minute or so of each other – it was just total coincidence," Ramage said.
"We just want to get back to focusing on the pitch – we go on Twitter for a bit of banter, we don't go on there to air our views or say what happens on the training pitch.
"People are going to draw their own conclusions why we've both come off it but it's purely to have a break and clear our heads and be fully focused on the job.
"Some of the abuse has gone a little too far but if you put yourself up on these sites, you're going to get people who want to air their opinions, which they're entitled to just as much as the guys who praise you.
"I don't really take notice of the ones who hate – some have gone a bit far with the abuse, but I'm old enough and big enough to ignore all that. Coming off Twitter has got nothing to do with that.
"I'll be back on it in the near future but for now it's about clearing my mind and not having the distractions of it."
Ramage says the squad were very frustrated on the way home from the north west following the defeat against Paul Ince's side, but the defender remembers the start of the season when things were even worse than they are now.
He said: "We're still in a great position.
"Everyone seems to be doom and gloom at the moment because we've lost three on the bounce, but think about the start of the season when we were bottom of the league.
"If someone said to us we were going to turn it around and be fourth with six games to go, everybody would have bitten your hand off. There was a lot of frustration from everyone after Blackpool and the bus journey home wasn't great either.
"Everybody believes we can get the job done. OK, it's not going for us at the minute but there's not one player, management staff or anyone at the club who is not focused on trying to get there.
"We just need to relax, soak up the pressure we're putting ourselves under and start again on Saturday against Barnsley."
Ramage hopes to give the fans something to cheer about come the last game of the season on Saturday, May 4.
"The fans were with us at the start of the season and they are with us now – that hasn't changed," he said. "We just want them to stay with us as it's been a roller-coaster of a season, but there's been more highs than lows.
"And you have to think about what the club has gone through over the last three or four years.
"I hope we can give the fans something to shout and cheer about at the end of the season."
