Friend had been taken out of Stoke’s clash with Tottenham last month after the Premier League became concerned his allegiance to Leicester would affect his decision-making.
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“He did a great job against Stoke and I’m going to play him at Southampton because he has given me a question mark about the team”. We’ve lacked a goalscorer this season. Norwich City’s interest, on deadline day, surfaced too late.
“History is littered with clubs getting relegated after making it to the final”. His goals duly secured his team’s top-flight status.
“It was important his contract was sorted out”. We had a great first half of the season and it was hard for him to get into the side.
“Injuries and our form have limited his time, but we secured his future because he scores goals”.
“If we do it again for the third season, then that is something that we have achieved and we should look at with a lot of pride and then we can use that to look forward to bigger and better things hopefully next year”.
That seemed to kill any momentum that Palace had been building but Pape Souare went close when he was picked out at the back post by his fellow full-back Joel Ward but blazed the ball high and wide as a tepid first 45 came to a close. He feels that they “have excelled at some points”, while other times they’ve have disappointed themselves. It was his combination with Wickham that really caught the eye, offering the management a potential Plan B for the Cup final.
While Palace breathed a sigh of relief at survival, Stoke’s campaign continued to fizzle out.
Stoke led with Charlie Adam’s goal in the 26th minute after a through ball from Marko Arnautovic.
Had it been achieved, the clean sheet would have been reward for a much-improved display from the Staffordshire side, who used the aerial ability of Peter Crouch to their advantage and attacked with a great deal more urgency.
Palace had little response and a ripple of boos rang out at the half-time whistle, but the home fans were in better spirits two minutes into the second half.
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Hughes departed scowling. Palace, in contrast, can focus on a glittering final ahead.
