Roy Hodgson ticked about every box on his return to Crystal Palace on Saturday (April 1) in their win over Leicester.

All of sudden, Palace have their first win of 2023, Jean-Philippe Mateta scored his second league goal of the season, the talented forwards dusted off their shooting boots and the whole mood around Selhurst Park has improved.

When Roy’s return was announced, the expectation was he would organise them well and it was a canny move as Palace, still in 12th, just needed to pick up some results. What they got against Leicester was a team that offensively outperformed Patrick Vieira's side which played the first 27 games of the season.

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They had 31 shots, nine of which were on target. To put some context on those numbers, they average 10.6 shots per game in their 29 league games, with only 3.4 of those on target.

Football showed its ridiculousness for Crystal Palace’s equaliser, AS for all the knocking on the door it was a cruel own goal which got them back into the game. Eberechi Eze’s wicked free kick struck the crossbar and then opposition keeper Daniel Iversen, before rolling into the back of the net.

The second goal was spectacular. Mateta has rightly received criticism for his lack of goals this season, but as he harnessed the magic of Hodgson’s new manager bounce to take the ball on the spin and stroke it home in the dying embers of the contest, you could tell the mood had changed.

In truth, the relegation battle which Palace find themselves in is a product of fear and survival should be easy enough. The more important objective for Roy’s potentially brief tenure is to bring some positivity back to a club that suffered a halt in momentum.