Players urge Hodgson to sign new deal with Palace

Veteran likely to extend contract at end of season Murray says Brighton are ready for relegation fight

At 72, Roy Hodgson is showing no signs of slowing down. The Croydon-born Crystal Palace manager is expected to sign an extension to his contract which expires at the end of this season and has the full backing of his squad after another successful campaign with the club.

“The players are keen to see the manager stay and enjoy playing for him,” said full-back Joel Ward, who has been at the club for almost eight years, after the 1-0 victory at Brighton on Saturday.

“You can see that from the results and the way we have played this season. I am pretty sure it is the highest points tally we have had in the Premier League at this stage of the season, which we are delighted about. We want to continue to build and move forward, and set our sights high.”

Palace are nine points clear of the relegation zone following a hard-fought victory over their arch rivals, who remain in real danger. It was a resolute display from the

visiting team, who have the best defensive record in the bottom half of the division.

“The gaffer has also been in the game long enough to know what these games mean, he spoke to us to make sure we were ready and got our minds on the game away from the hype,” Ward added.

“I don’t think there have been many pretty games between us and Brighton, the ones I have played have always been a bit of a scrap.

“But we’ll take those sorts of wins and sometimes you need to win like that, it is part and parcel of football – dig in when your backs are against the wall.”

Brighton remain winless in 2020 and are just one point above the relegation zone. They face trips to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City, and home matches with Arsenal and Manchester United in their next four games.

“We’ve been here before, haven’t we?” said Brighton striker Glenn

Murray, who came off the bench late on against his former club.

“Every year we’ve been in the Premier League we’ve been fighting for survival, so it’s nothing new to us, we don’t think we’re better than this. We aim to improve all the time, but it’s the scenario we’re in and we’ve got to deal with that situation.”

As has been the pattern for much of the season, Brighton enjoyed a large share of possession and created the most and the clearest chances, but were unable to translate that into a result.

Despite the worrying run of form, Murray insists he is not overly daunted by the forthcoming fixtures. “If the Premier League was that simple, that you sat down and predicted all the scores, who would be interested?” he said.

“No one had us winning away at Arsenal and playing the way we did, so you just never know with this league and that’s why we love it, and that’s why we watch it. We’re still in it. “You guys [the media] are talking like we’re relegated already, but we’re not and we’ve got plenty of points to play for and we’ll be doing that. You just never know in this league where points are going to come from. You can’t predict it, which is why we like it.”