Roy’s Eagles ready to soar
ROY HODGSON has urged his Crystal Palace players to go on and become recordbreakers.
The Eagles were on course to go down as the worst team in Premier League history when the ex-England boss took over in September.
A four-game losing streak cost previous manager Frank de Boer his job, before Hodgson extended that sorry start to seven after initially failing to stop the rot.
Now the Eagles are as good as safe and looking for a result at Stoke today to make a highest-ever Premier League finish possible – they finished 10th in the 2014-15 season.
Hodgson said: “I would like to end the season with a few records, it would be nice.
“I know that the club takes a lot of pride in its history.
“I’m always getting people telling me about records and it would be rather nice if my name and this team’s name was on a few of them.
“But the points are the most important things.”
Stoke must win to keep their chances of beating the drop realistic and Hodgson knows how pressure can intensity in the heat of a battle.
He said: “Stoke won’t have accepted their fate yet. “Quite a lot of teams you play have knives at their throat and desperation in how they need to play. “All we can do is play our football, keep our heads, and don’t get sucked into the type of football they need to play.”