Damien Delaney saw the hard work on the training ground pay off when the defender bagged a rare goal in Saturday’s 3-1 opening day win at Norwich City.

The Irish defender was perfectly placed to double Crystal Palace’s advantage four minutes after the break when Papa Souare headed down Jason Puncheon’s corner into the goalmouth.

Souare’s connection may initially have looked like it was flying off target, but Delaney revealed afterwards the move had been planned in advance at the Eagles’ Beckenham training ground.

He said: “I’m pleased for Keith Millen because it was his idea.

“We spent an hour in total all week between Tuesday and Friday working on that.

“There was a lot of responsibility on Punch to put the ball on the money and he did in fairness to him – he put it right exactly where it should have been.

“Papa was just supposed to head it down so it gave us a chance.

“If it didn’t go in directly then hopefully one of us just got on the end of it.”

Delaney added: “We do spend a lot of time on that.

“Some people might think it is monotonous or boring but we don’t mind because last season we scored 23 goals from set plays, so we don’t mind staying out that extra half hour after training and working on those things.”

Delaney’s only other Premier League goal for Palace came in the memorable 3-3 draw with Liverpool in May 2014.

The 34-year-old doubled that personal tally at Carrow Road and joked afterwards he had already reached his scoring target on day one of the new campaign.

“I set myself a target of one goal for the season so that is me now!” quipped the Irishman.

“Seriously though, it was just great to give us a 2-0 lead and that cushion.

“Unfortunately they pulled one back.

“Even when they did they had a lot of spells of possession and were very good but I felt comfortable.

“We’ve been in those situations many times before in the Premier League in the last couple of years so there was no need to panic or show any kind of distress.

“We were always going to be in control.”

The big talking point of the game came after Norwich had halved the deficit and were pushing for an equaliser.

Former Palace striker Cameron Jerome thought he had grabbed a leveller, only for referee Simon Hooper to controversially rule the effort out after deciding the Norwich attacker had fouled Joel Ward while going for the ball.

And Delaney was full of praise for his defensive colleague for putting his head in where it hurts.

He explained: “I think Joel Ward did brilliantly.

“Wardy went in hard enough to stick his head in where he made it look dangerous.

“I think if Wardy winced away from that or shied away from it a little bit he would have.

“It gave the referee a decision to make and fortunately for us it went our way.

“Wardy asked a question with his brave defending.

“I think he did ever so well because not many people would have stuck their head in there.

“Everybody saw Cammy lining up an overhead kick long before it was there so I think Wardy did enough to give the ref a decision to make. Today it went our way.”