Crystal Palace defender Joel Ward has opened about how him and his teammates are all 'singing off the same hymn sheet' since manager Roy Hodgson returned to replace Patrick Vieira.
The 75-year-old came out of retirement to take over at Selhurst Park after the Frenchman was sacked two weeks ago and was treated to a 94th-minute winner from Jean-Phillippe Mateta against Leicester City last weekend.
That result meant that the Eagles stayed above Leeds United in the league table, but with just a point separating the two sides in 12th and 13th ahead of their clash this weekend, Ward made sure to warn the Whites of their new-found form with Hodgson in charge.
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"He’s straight back in, and we’ve hit the ground running," he admitted after their win over Leicester last weekend. "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 give 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 today – from a solid foundation we went on and showed the quality that we possess."
The win against Leicester was Palace's first of 2023, with Hodgson having ended a run of 13 games without a victory in his first game back at his former club.
But Ward knows that they can't let it get to their heads, and that they must take each game as it comes - starting with a tough match against Leeds on Sunday afternoon.
"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 today 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."
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