Oliver Glasner hailed Crystal Palace’s “huge achievement” of eliminating the “noise” of their Europa League demotion to secure the club’s debut appearance in a group stage of a major European competition.

Palace went to Norway with a slender 1-0 Conference League play-off first-leg lead over Fredrikstad after Jean-Philippe Mateta scored in last week’s clash at Selhurst Park.

The south Londoners were strong favourites to complete the job on Thursday, but had to grind out a goalless draw on an artificial pitch which appeared to hinder their rhythm.

Nevertheless, the result extended Palace’s unbeaten run in all competitions to 13 – equalling the longest in their history as a top-flight side – and secured them a place in the group phase of the Conference League.

Last season’s FA Cup winners were denied a spot in the Europa League by UEFA last month after the governing body determined that American businessman John Textor had control, or influence, at both Palace and French club Lyon.

“It is a huge achievement to go into the group stage,” Glasner told Channel 5. “It was our second goal of the season and we have achieved that by the end of August which is great.

“The first one was winning the Community Shield – which we did – and now, with all of the noise of being demoted to the Conference League, we have done that too.

“We defended excellently and did not give them a chance but on the other side, we know we can and have to play better in possession, but overall it’s important be in the group stage.”

Looking ahead to Friday’s draw, Glasner added: “I have a press conference in the morning and we train in the afternoon because we get home late.

“We will watch Aston Villa to be prepared (for Sunday’s Premier League match) so I think someone will tell me who the opposition teams are, but it is not important to me because we start (the Conference League) on October 2 and now Villa is on my mind.”

Glasner’s side would have been keen to extend their one-goal advantage early on and put the tie to bed, but the Premier League outfit offered little going forward in a match of few opportunities.

Palace defender Chris Richards said: “They were a good team and threw everything and the kitchen sink at us.

“He (Glasner) said to us that, ‘not every game is going to be pretty, but the result is the most important thing’, and we got the result we needed.

“Everybody is super excited. We are an ambitious club and now is the time to win some games in Europe. We are ready to make history.”