"Teams try to batter us physically, there is nothing wrong with that and we have to deal with it," said Jones.
"But we stood up to that. Certainly, we are dealing with it better this season than we did at the end of last season.
"Great credit to my players because they dug deep.
"We are keeping our feet on ground and if we can get more players back from injury we will have an even better chance.
"We haven't seen Kelvin Etuhu for three months.
"He's had two days training and then he puts in an excellent shift like that," added Jones.
"But the biggest one for me is McPhail.
"He did not play a reserve game or a practice match when he came back and look at him. It's players like that who will get us where we want to go."
Jones stressed dealing with the aerial bombardment Palace threw Cardiff's way had been key.
He went on: "The ball spent a long time in the air and the concern was whether we had enough height because of our injuries.
"Every time we come here we get an aerial bashing.
"And we dealt with it the best way we could.
"It was tough to get the ball down and play. The surface was difficult for a passing game.
"But at this stage of the season you sometimes have to win ugly.
"We were magnificent against Sheffield United, but only came away with a point.
"We work at set plays and another one came off for us, today when Gabor Gyepes scored," he said.
"But our back five, goalkeeper, two centre-backs and full-backs, were magnificent.
"It was a difficult in which midfield was by-passed. Every time we got the ball down Palace players were in our faces.
"Palace scored from a set play and that was their cue to have a go and I thought we then scored our second against the run of play.
"Palace watched us against Sheffield United and knowing we were without Jay Bothroyd they put the ball in our penalty area from everywhere.
"But look at our defence - they were magnificent.
"I was delighted it rained - the wet ball meant they could not get a grip on the ball to hurl it into our penalty area from throw-ins.
"But they kicked in and it was difficult to win challenges.
"If we didn't, we made sure we won second balls.
"Our confidence has always been there.
"We had to fight and scrap - Get our heads on the ball. We have a siege mentality."
Palace boss Paul Hart was left rueing, in his opinion, poor refereeing decisions.
"You have to look at a blatant penalty - how it's been missed I'll never know," said Hart.
"And then a handball when the ball has been battered at the player from a yard. Up to that point there was only one team in it.
"I think it was a magnificent performance," added Hart.
"We are patching players up and we have kids on the bench - we are what you see.
"We've got seven games to go and if we play like that we will win football matches. The players are disappointed and angry."