STRIKER Jermaine Easter is determined to make an immediate impact at Crystal Palace after finally sealing his switch to Selhurst Park at the second bite of the cherry.

The Welsh international put pen to paper on a two-and-half-year deal with the Eagles last Friday to become Dougie Freedman's first signing since taking over as permanent manager.

But Easter's move to south London could have come four months earlier. Former Palace boss George Burley had an undisclosed bid turned down by MK Dons in the summer.

The 29-year-old, who scored 20 times for the League One outfit last season, was disappointed the original offer was rejected as he was keen to test himself again in the Championship.

He made his feelings known to Dons manager Karl Robinson and was allowed to go out briefly on loan to Swansea, ironically who he made his Eagles debut against as a second half substitute last weekend.

"It was a shame that it didn't happen in the summer but I was pleased to get this chance," said Easter. "I had a great time with Swansea to be fair, they are a great team and a great bunch of lads but this was an opportunity to sign a long-term contract so I took it.

"We're in a difficult patch at the moment but I'm sure there's enough quality in the dressing room to get out of it.

"It's a great club, it's got a lot of history, it's an established Championship club and obviously the opportunity is there to work with the manager who is young and fresh and has just got the job.

"I want to play Championship football and I'm looking forward to the challenge."

The move happened so quickly that Easter was in fact expecting to be playing against Palace, not for them, on Saturday. The pacy striker even had to make a late call to the Swans' kit woman to avoid an embarrassing faux-pas on his first outing with the Eagles.

"I got a call that the offer was put in on Thursday I think it was and I got in the car and drove up to London," he smiled. "It went so fast that I left my boots [at Liberty Stadium], so I had to ask the kit women to swap them into the away dressing room. It was a bit of a crazy one, but football's a crazy game sometimes."

Easter did well in his brief second half cameo. He looked full of running and went close to grabbing a consolation goal only to be denied by a smart save from Swans stopper Dorus de Vries.

"I was hoping I would have scored but such is life and hopefully I do it next Saturday and we get the three points," he said.

"I wasn't put off by Palace's league position because when you look at the players and the quality we have you can see there's enough there to get out of trouble.

"Obviously we've come up against a really good Swansea team [last Saturday], in my opinion probably the best passing team in the division, but it's not going to be that tough every week."

Easter has played for a staggering 12 clubs throughout his playing career. The longest he has ever spent at one place is the three years he served as a young hopeful at Hartlepool United.

Arguably his best form came at Wycombe Wanderers where he found the target 21 times in 59 games, attracting the attention of several Premier League sides and earning him a place in the PFA League Two Team of the Year for the 2006–07 season.

But Easter was always determined to play at the highest level that he could and a subsequent move to Championship Plymouth never really worked out.

Loan spells at Millwall and Colchester followed before the switch to Milton Keynes.

The Eagles new boy doesn't like to dwell on his past too much, however, and hopes to finally end his nomadic ways at SE25.

"Certain things happen, but at the end of the day the past is behind me and I want to look forward to settling down in London and making the move successful," he said.

"I'm a goal scorer and that's what I want to bring to this team, that's what I thrive on. When I'm scoring goals, that's when I'm high on confidence and that's what I'll be trying to do here so we can climb the table as quickly as possible."