Yohan Cabaye scored from the penalty spot 19 minutes from time to earn Crystal Palace a 1-0 win over Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday.
Substitute Wilfried Zaha was crucial in earning the decisive foul from Allan Nyom, allowing Cabaye to convert and get Palace back to winning ways in the Barclays Premier League following narrow defeats by Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
Having made a solid start to life in the BPL, Watford were targeting a third straight top-flight win for the first time since April 1987 against their Championship play-off final foes of two years ago.
After a cagey start, Jose Manuel Jurado and Dwight Gayle each saw efforts strike the crossbar in a more entertaining second period.
But the match turned on Nyom's clumsy challenge 71 minutes in, the Watford full-back unable to deal with Zaha's pace and trickery before Cabaye duly kept his cool to earn victory and send Alan Pardew's team up to sixth in the table.
Buoyed by recent victories over Swansea City and Newcastle United, an unchanged Watford started strongly against a Palace side showing a host of changes from their narrow defeat at Spurs last weekend.
Wayne Hennessey, Joe Ledley and the fit-again Scott Dann all returned, while Gayle was handed a first league start of the season as Brede Hangeland had the first effort on target with a header kept out by Heurelho Gomes.
That proved to be a rare foray forward for Palace however, as Watford enjoyed the better of the play before the half-hour mark, Troy Deeney going close with a glancing header.
Palace almost capitalised on a series of Watford fouls around the edge of the area but Cabaye's delivery just evaded Gayle, before the Frenchman lost possession and allowed Watford to break, with Hangeland required to clear and deny Odion Ighalo a sight of goal.
Both Flores and Pardew kept faith with their XIs at the interval but it was Watford who remained the more threatening, Almen Abdi testing Hennessey down to his right after smart play between Deeney and Ighalo and Jurado hitting the Palace crossbar inside three minutes of the restart with an impressive free-kick.
Bakary Sako's deflected free-kick also caused problems for Gomes on the hour before the winger found Gayle inside the area, only for Palace this time to be thwarted by the crossbar.
While Yannick Bolasie's new contract will have had the visiting fans in high spirits ahead of Sunday's encounter, it was the introduction of fellow winger Zaha that proved crucial for Pardew as the substitute bamboozled Nyom down the left side of the area.
Cabaye tucked away the resultant penalty to claim the points with the visitors' first league goal since their shock win at Chelsea last month.
Watford head coach Quique Sanchez Flores: "We didn't feel comfortable in the match and we had the feeling that Palace were closing the space.
"We tried to switch the ball but we had difficulty in attempts as they stopped us well in the middle.
"They also ran the counter-attack so it was very difficult for us in the first half, we had problems trying to stop their skilful players.
"In general during the match we felt more uncomfortable than at other times [this season]."
Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew: "It was a great day. Our concentration levels were very high today and our two centre-halves did a super job. There was also some really good wide play and that ended up settling the game.
"We've got good players for an away team, because we've got pace. But I said to the guys 'don't retreat today, take the game to them'.
"We didn't concede any ground to Watford and in the end we found pockets to exploit. We have [Marouane] Chamakh and [Connor] Wickham injuries. They're two major players, they're like [Daniel] Sturridge and [Christian] Benteke at Liverpool for us."
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