Palace triumphed over the 'Terriers' with a 2-0 victory to lift them clear of the bottom three in the Premier League. Townsend spoke after the match, to reiterate that relegation doesn't discriminate and that they are not yet comfortably safe.
He said: ''I’ve been in teams before where people have said, 'You’re too good to go down', I know to my cost that’s never the case. It’s been the story of our season, really."
He added: ‘'You watch us, even in our defeats at times, and think, “How on earth are this team down there?”, but we are.’'
However, Palace were on excellent form on Saturday with a particularly impressive performance from Wilfried Zaha. The 25-year-old made his first start since 4th February and his comeback was vital to Palace's win.
Quick to praise his team-mate, Townsend said: ''Wilf [Zaha] coming back gives us a massive boost. We've all seen the stats about what happens when he's not in the team — I don’t need to harp on about that — and he’s an incredible player for us.''
Palace have not won a match without Zaha in 18 months as the winger acknowledged that Zaha's fitness would be key in ensuring Palace's survival: ''We need to keep him fit if we’re going to stay up. If he can keep putting in performances like he did for us here, he’ll be dragging us to more victories.’'
Townsend summed up Palace's battle for survival: ''We know we've got the talent and that's important, but in a relegation battle you need more than talent. You need heart, you need desire. You need everything we showed, and we're going to need that same attitude in the last seven games if we're going to survive.''
Due to the international break, Roy Hodgson's side won't play their next Premier League match until March 31 when Liverpool pay them a visit at Selhurst Park.