Crystal Palace fullback Joel Ward believes that Saturday's victory over Leicester City provides them with the perfect platform to build on.

The London club are hoping they can avoid relegation under interim boss Roy Hodgson.

The club's longest-serving player has ample experience playing under Hodgson, and believes that with nine games to go they can save their skins.

Speaking to London News Online, Ward said: “It [the result] is massive and puts us in a great position.

“It's been a tough run what we've been on, and [it] was a real statement of intent – we want to continue that.

“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 [Saturday] 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."

He added on Hodgson: “He's straight back in, and we've hit the ground running. 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 gave 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 [against Leicester] – from a solid foundation we went on and showed the quality that we possess. We can take a lot of positives from the game."