Crystal Palace midfielder Luka Milivojevic hailed as a “massive three points” their 1-0 Premier League victory over Leicester.
A season they had started with optimism surrounding their prospects has so far taken them narrowly above the bottom three, making the three points and momentum earned against Leicester particularly crucial.
There had also been suggestions of pressure growing on their manager Roy Hodgson, who has been left without a regular goalscorer.
The fine goal their captain Milivojevic scored on Saturday against Leicester gave them a significant boost ahead of next week’s tough trip to Manchester City, and the midfielder told their official club website: “It’s very big, a massive three points for us. We deserved it after everything.
“We’ve had many games where we scored but lost in the end and thankfully we broke that. Winning at home is very important because, for the fans, from last season, we took many points in our stadium and it’s very important to have taken that back for our team and our confidence.
“I got the ball from Andros (Townsend), saw the space and decided to shoot. Gladly, it was a wonderful goal.
“Many times this season, we didn’t have any luck. But (on Saturday) we did, and we deserved that.”
Martin Kelly started in central defence in the absence of the suspended James Tomkins, and he added: “We had a really strong performance and every one of us fought for those three points.
“Every game now feels massive, it always does in the Premier League.
“There are no games that you take for granted but we know going into home games we’ve got a real chance of getting a result because of how good our fans are. They put us on the front foot.”