Joel Ward Crystal Palace
Joel Ward believes Crystal Palace’s win over relegation rivals Leicester City was “a real statement of intent”. The Eagles picked up a first victory in 2023 after defeating the Foxes 2-1 at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta’s stoppage-time winner securing three vital points. But Ward has warned Palace can’t ahead of themselves as they sit 12th in the table with just three points separating them from the relegation zone with nine games to go.
Joel Ward said: “It [the result] is massive and puts us in a great position. It’s been a tough run what we’ve been on, and [it] was a real statement of intent – we want to continue that. We can’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ve got to make sure that we put ourselves in the best position possible. We’ve got to continue to build on [Saturday] and continue to move forward. We’ve got to make sure that we do the business and take care of the next fixtures that we’ve got coming up. It’s a big month for us, but we can put ourselves in a great position and be looking up the table.”
Palace have an opportunity to distance themselves from the drop zone with all five of their remaining fixtures in April against sides currently below them in the table. Back-to-back away fixtures at Leeds United and Southampton precede Everton’s visit to Selhurst Park, with Palace back on the road again with a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers on April 25. Their final fixture this month will be against London rivals West Ham at home.
The win over Leicester City marked a perfect start under returning manager Roy Hodgson, with Ward praising the 75-year-old’s impact since taking the reins as Palace boss for a second time.
Joel Ward said: “He’s straight back in, and we’ve hit the ground running. He settled in very quickly. We all know what to expect [from him] and what he expects from us – we’re all singing off the same hymn sheet. We focused this (past) week on simplifying the message, working on the basics and making sure that we gave ourselves a good platform. We know that we’ve got the talent. We know that we’ve got an abundance of ability within the squad, and we can hurt teams. We’ve proved that [against Leicester] – from a solid foundation we went on and showed the quality that we possess. We can take a lot of positives from the game. The first half was one of the best performances we’ve had for a long time. The chances, the shots – we were probably unfortunate not to be a few up in the first half. But we stayed strong, even when we had a setback [when Leicester took the lead], and it showed a lot of character for the boys to come back and win again.”
