Memories of Roaring Lion will be evoked at Epsom next weekend when Running Lion runs in the Betfred Oaks and Dubai Mile contests the Betfred Derby.

The John Gosden-trained Roaring Lion finished third in the Derby in 2018 before winning the Eclipse, Juddmonte International, Irish Champion Stakes and the QEII on Champions Day.

His owners Qatar Racing were rightly excited about his second career at stud, but it was sadly cut short after just one season when he died due to colic.

Gosden said: “He was a real tough cookie and he was a character too. He had so much talent he could play about and still run huge races.”

Gosden, along with his son Thady, also trains his daughter Running Lion, an impressive winner of the Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

“She did it in great style. The ground was a little bit testing that day, but she travelled well and flew home,” said John Gosden.

“We know she’s bred really to be a mile-and-a-quarter filly, her father was the last one off the bridle in the Derby and if she gets the distance, she’s in there with a huge shout.”

Oisin Murphy rode Roaring Lion to all his major success and believes there are similarities between the pair.

“They have the exact same shape shoulder and carry their head in a similar position and also have a similar constitution thus far, nothing has phased her so that’s really positive,” said Murphy.

“I’d imagine she will still be going pretty well coming around Tattenham Corner and I’ll know my fate then in the next furlong or two.”

Dubai Mile, a Group One winner at two for Charlie Johnston, will bid to give the trainer a first Derby winner with his first runner after a fine effort to be fifth in the 2000 Guineas.

“It’s amazing for Roaring Lion to have a runner in both the Oaks and the Derby from his one and only crop,” said Johnston.

“We haven’t needed to do a huge amount since Newmarket. He came out of that very well and it’s just a case of getting him there in one piece now.”

Boss Julen Lopetegui will continue talks with Wolves about his future.

Lopetegui’s long-term future at Molineux has been in the spotlight with uncertainty about his position.

Financial fair play regulations will impact the club’s spending power this summer and Lopetegui has previously said he only discovered the constraints last week.

He has been calling for investment since securing Premier League safety and the manager will continue to speak to chairman Jeff Shi about what backing he will receive.

He said: “We will see, we have to discuss with the chairman and owners. The most important thing is what the solution is going to be. When you have a problem you have to solve the problem.

“This is all. About my future, I have a contract and we will see what is going to happen, This is football, we don’t know.

“We have to talk, it’s not about one or two days. We have to talk about the solution and the future to be able to have a squad ready to compete again.

“This year has been a wake-up call. We have to learn why it has happened and to overcome and make our homework this summer. It’s not about one or two days. We need a clear picture.

“It’s important to have the squad ready. Maybe not 100 per cent of players but maybe 90 per cent. For me it’s very important, to have the squad ready to start working with us on July 1.”

Wolves to go Arsenal for Sunday’s Premier League finale and Joao Moutinho will not feature and is likely to have played his last game for the club as he is out of contract in the summer.

Sasa Kalajdzic (knee) is out while Lopetegui himself is banned from the touchline for collecting four yellow cards.

He added: “On Sunday we have an important match because it’s the last of the season. They have been very close to winning the Premier League and will want to make a good match in front of their fans. We have to be ready to compete with them.”

Lewis Miller wants Hibernian to turn Edinburgh green on Saturday as they look to beat city rivals Hearts to fourth spot in the cinch Premiership.

Hibs go into the final league weekend of the season two points behind their rivals but fresh from a 4-2 win over champions Celtic at Easter Road on Wednesday and with the bragging rights from last month’s 1-0 win over the men in maroon in Leith.

Miller, the 22-year-old year-old Australian full-back who signed from Central Coast Mariners last June, knows fourth spot guarantees European football albeit so could fifth place, providing Celtic beat Inverness in the Scottish Cup final.

He said: “European football is what everyone is talking about. That is what everyone is excited about.

“If we get this win against Hearts, not only will Edinburgh be green but we will also secure European football which will be unreal, for a boy coming from Australia, who is unheard of.

“We got the win in the last game against Hearts. That showed that we have developed and changed as a team.

“Confidence is sky high at the moment and I don’t think anyone scares us, no matter who we play. And the way we are playing I don’t think anyone can stop us.

“I have never played there (Tynecastle) before but obviously the atmosphere is going to be intense.

“It is a massive derby. I am excited. We have a lot of experienced players that will help guide the younger ones. It is going to be awesome.”

Miller hopes his move to Edinburgh leads to full international honours like his countrymen at Hearts, Kye Rowles, Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Garang Kuol, who scored the late equaliser in the 2-2 draw with Rangers at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

Miller said: “The Scottish Premiership has a lot of Australian players and pretty much all of them play for the Socceroos.

“So hopefully I am next. Obviously everyone wants to play for their country.

“I think if I keep playing the way I am playing I should get there.

“European football is a lot better; tactics, speed technique. It is exactly what I needed to develop as a player.

“I am quite young and I think this is the perfect move for me and now it is slowly coming together.”

Everton manager Sean Dyche insists he has no problem with the relegation-threatened club potentially already looking for his replacement.

The former Burnley boss arrived late in January as Frank Lampard’s replacement with the challenge of avoiding the drop.

Things have not gone entirely to plan with the Toffees just two points above the relegation zone, although their fate remains in their own hands as they seek to extend their stay in the top flight into a 70th season by matching the results of Leeds and Leicester.

And reports this week suggested Everton were already thinking about what comes next.

“It’s fair to say ‘interesting’ reports, but I don’t know where they come from,” said Dyche.

“At the end of the day, good businesses should be succession planning. I’ve got no problem with that, even if that were true.”

Everton go into their relegation-decider at home to Bournemouth without striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin or defenders Nathan Patterson and Ben Godfrey.

“They won’t be fit. We haven’t had Dom for two-thirds of my time here. We have still won games, still got points on the board and performed,” he said.

“Patto has come into the side more latterly and performed well. We lose him as well.”

Dyche holds out some hope Vitalli Mykolenko – his only remaining full-back on either flank – could return after a two-match absence.

“He’s a bit better so we will see how he reacts tomorrow to training today,” Dyche added.

Dyche was already without Seamus Coleman, Ruben Vinagre, Tom Davies and Andros Townsend so more injuries just increase the pressure in an already-tough atmosphere on Sunday.

“I think it is part of being a professional footballer. You have to use the feeling in the stadium to your advantage and I think we have a decent experience level for the ups and downs of football to understand that,” added the manager.

“We want players to focus on the game, which is not as easy as it sounds, but focus on the game and the idea and don’t worry about the noise. That’s the clear intention.”

Leicester boss Dean Smith has said his message to his players ahead of their all-or-nothing game with West Ham on Sunday will simply be “just win”.

The Foxes have to win and hope that Everton cannot beat Bournemouth if they are to avoid relegation to the Championship.

Smith, who was parachuted in on an eight-game SOS mission following the sacking of Brendan Rodgers, says that what happens at the King Power Stadium against the Hammers is the only thing the Foxes need to focus on.

He said: “We have got to win the game plainly and simply, we have got to figure out and balance the best way to not give big chances away and create big chances against West Ham, who are in a European final and after a tough first half of the season have climbed away from danger and have got a very good manager there.

“We have to win the game and not look at the Everton result until after the game. We have to do our job and see where it takes us.

“We can only control what we can do. We have to control our performance, help your team-mates out and go and get a good performance and a win.

“If we do our part we are looking at other people to help us, but we have to make sure we concentrate on what we do. It’s quite a simple message really and the lads have trained well so far.

“The players want clarity of what their positions are, what we are asking of them and our job is to give them that. It doesn’t get any clearer for me: They have to win. That’s all they need to know and that’s all they do know.

“We just have to concentrate on our own game. It’s simplistic, we have to win, it doesn’t matter what is going on at other grounds. Just win.

“Whatever else is going on elsewhere we are not in control of. But we have seen how quickly things can change around in the last 15 minutes of games, whether it is this season or previous seasons. We win our games and then see where it goes.”

Smith did not want to discuss his future beyond Sunday’s game, insisting that there will be a post-season debrief.

Asked whether the outcome of the match will impact his future, Smith added: “Not at all, my future was to come in for seven weeks and eight games and that hasn’t change. My future is exactly the same. That is a question to have after the game and not before it.”

The Foxes will be without Caglar Soyuncu, but Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Jonny Evans and Ricardo Pereira will all be fit. Wilfred Ndidi is a doubt with a hamstring injury.

“Caglar is not fit, he has tried to get himself back into training this week but he just felt it, obviously it was too close but the fact he wanted to push it to be in contention shows a lot about his character. He’s definitely out,” Smith said.

“Dewsbury-Hall is good, he’s been training with us for a couple of days now, so he’ll be available for selection.

“(Kelechi)  Iheanacho is fine, Jonny Evans had cramp he’s fine. Ricky we scanned him and he is fine, Wilf is the only question mark at the moment, we are waiting to see if he is good enough to train tomorrow.”

Kevin Ryan has the chance to notch the second Classic victory of his training career when Hi Royal goes for the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas at the Curragh on Saturday.

The North Yorkshire-based handler saddled The Grey Gatsby to win the Prix du Jockey Club in 2014 and in Hi Royal he has one of the market principals for the colts’ mile Classic.

The son of Kodiac defied odds of 125-1 to pick up a silver medal in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and although the result caused some surprise among connections, hopes are high that he will prove his Rowley Mile performance was not a one-off.

“Of course we were surprised. We were hoping he’d run well, but we never expected him to go that close,” said Bruce Raymond, racing manager for Hi Royal’s owner, Jaber Abdullah.

“I don’t know if it was the soft ground, the fact he got his own way or what, but the form is pretty solid and he did it the hard way.

“Hopefully he should have a chance on Saturday, he should be one of the favourites I would imagine. We’re going there with a good shout, certainly a better shout than he had at Newmarket.

“He’s a strong, powerful colt and you would imagine that he should be all the better for that run.

“His pedigree suggests he’s a miler, but I think he’d stay 10 furlongs later in the year.

“It’s a stiff mile at the Curragh but a different test to Newmarket where you have to handle the undulations more than ever now, so much so that it’s now become a front-runners’ track. You don’t see many come from last now – a few years ago all you had to worry about was the dip, now you have to keep them balanced and keep up at the same time.

“We’re hopeful, but if it rains I’d be happier. It never gets too fast over there, though.”

A place behind Hi Royal at Newmarket was Paul and Oliver Cole’s Royal Scotsman, a high-class two-year-old last season who proved he would be a force once again this term on his return in top-table company.

Keenness dented his chances of truly lasting home over a mile at Newmarket, but he is given another crack at Classic honours having been supplemented into this race earlier in the week.

“He’s in great form, he left for Ireland on Thursday night and arrived Friday morning and has eaten up, so we couldn’t be happier with him,” said Oliver Cole.

“To do what he did at Newmarket, to be keen and pull for four furlongs and then finish shows he’s pretty good.

“He broke the track record in the Richmond at Goodwood and he was in the second fastest ever Dewhurst – his sectionals were amazing after the first furlong in the Dewhurst. He is a very, very good horse, everything just needs to go right for him. We like to think we have a live contender.”

Further UK representation is provided by Roger Varian’s Charyn and the Charlie Hills-trained Galeron, who outran odds of 150-1 to finish fourth at Newmarket and has a Curragh victory already on his CV.

“It was a really good effort at Newmarket, he just got a little bit far back,” said Hills, who won the race with Phoenix Of Spain in 2019.

“He was awkward away and it was a bit rough coming out of the gates, so he wasn’t really in the position we wanted to be but he still ran great. We were delighted with him.

“He has come out of Newmarket really well. Kieran (Shoemark) came and sat on him last week and was happy with him. Unfortunately he can’t ride him, but we’re really happy to have Colin (Keane) aboard him – he knows the Curragh pretty well.

“It’s great that Galeron has been to the Curragh before and won there. Having a bit of course experience and liking the track is going to suit him well.”

Aidan O’Brien is the race’s leading trainer having won it 11 times and is well represented as he seeks a first triumph in six years.

Stable jockey Ryan Moore has elected to ride Tetrarch Stakes scorer Paddington, while Cairo and Age Of Kings will also go to post for the Ballydoyle operation.

O’Brien said: “We’re very happy with Paddington, he won the Tetrarch nicely. We’re looking forward to him, it’s his first step up to Group One company.

“We’re very happy with Cairo as well.”

The home challenge is strengthened by Donnacha O’Brien’s Proud And Regal, who drops back in trip to a mile having finished third on his return in the Derby Trial at Leopardstown.

Although it may have been assumed the Galileo colt would be heading up in trip in search of Classic success following his reappearance, he is a Group One winner at this distance and his handler has no worries about the return to a mile.

“He’s in good form and everything has gone smooth since his run at Leopardstown,” said O’Brien.

“He’s going back in trip but he has good form at this distance – he has won a Group One at this trip – so we’re hopeful he will run a good race.”

Jessica Harrington saddles two in the race with Quar Shamar seeing the form of his Dundalk win boosted recently by the runner-up, while stablemate Bold Discovery has twice placed at Group Three level.

Luke Comer’s Alexander John completes the field of 11.

Manchester City’s third-choice goalkeeper Scott Carson has signed a new 12-month contract, the Premier League champions have announced.

The 37-year-old former England international has made just two first-team appearances since joining City, initially on loan, in 2019 but has been an important part of manager Pep Guardiola’s squad.

“I’m excited to be staying at City,” Carson told the club’s website, www.mancity.com. “I love working with Pep, (coach) Xabi Mancisidor and our incredible players every day.

“Hopefully I can help all of our goalkeepers be at their best.”

Guardiola said: “We have him in the locker room and you cannot believe the impact.”

Ruben Selles is disappointed not to have been kept on as Southampton manager as he feels ready to lead the side despite overseeing their meek relegation.

A myriad of bad decisions on and off the field has brought Saints’ 11-year stay in the Premier League to a crushing end.

Ralph Hasenhuttl started the season in charge and was replaced by divisive Nathan Jones, with an initial upturn under Selles quickly flatlining after being handed the job for the rest of the campaign.

Saints were relegated with two games to spare and the club announced on Wednesday that the Spaniard’s contract “will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the season”.

Selles found that out on Monday and will take charge for the final time against Liverpool on Sunday, with Russell Martin then set to come in as Southampton prepare for life in the Championship.

“Listen, I did as much as I can, I show here every weekend with you, I make the team being competitive,” he said.

“We didn’t get the football, the results that we expected to have.

“I think you saw an identity, you saw a team that wants to play together. We didn’t make it.

“I tried to put everything every time with this sort of mentality and in that part I did my best and that’s the reality. I cannot change the decision from the owners.

“I still think I’m ready but it’s not my call and, yeah, my feeling right now is just to finish in the best way possible, to prepare the Liverpool game.

“And then on Monday, we will think about something different.”

Selles joined Saints from Copenhagen last summer as first-team lead coach supporting Hasenhuttl having enjoyed a varied coaching career that had taken him from Spain to the likes of Russia and Azerbaijan.

But now the 39-year-old sees himself in England and hopes to be able to stay coaching there at a high level.

“Of course, I would like to stay here and I would like to stay in the top level that I can stay,” Selles said. “If it’s not Premier League, it’s very close to that.

“My target has been always to be competing against the best and with the best.

“That’s what I have been doing in the last three months and I want to be here back and I want to find myself back as quick as possible.”

As Selles’ time at St Mary’s comes to a close on Sunday, attention turns to the new era under impending appointment of Martin.

The PA news agency understands the Swansea boss is poised to become Southampton head coach on a three-year deal.

“I just make my opinion of all of them as a squad, as individual players,” Selles said of the squad Martin will inherit.

“I don’t know who is the new coach. You maybe probably know that better than me but, actually, it’s not for me.

“I just told the club what I think. I told before this week what I think is what we need to do to rebuild the squad for the Championship or for the Premier League in that time if we stay.

“So, they know my opinion, but they can do with that what they want.”

George Boughey has confirmed Asadna firmly on course for the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot next month following his sensational debut victory at Ripon last weekend.

A 160,000 guineas purchase from the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, the Mehmas colt put his rivals to the sword in North Yorkshire to record a remarkable 12-length success.

While trainer George Boughey was hoping his youngster would run with credit on his introduction, the Newmarket handler admits even he was taken aback by the nature of his performance.

He said: “Asadna was great on Sunday. It was a little bit unexpected, but his work’s been good since he came from the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up. We hoped that he might go close, but to go and put his head down and stride away like that was impressive.

“Even watching him, I felt he got a little bit lost as they started to quicken and he’s a six-furlong horse. Ascot is tailor-made for him. I think the way he does quicken on fast ground and is able to relax, you can put him anywhere in the race.

“He is right towards the top end of the market in the Coventry and we’ll obviously now head to Royal Ascot in search of a £125,000 Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot Breeze Up Bonus.

“He’s got a very good mind – he just eats, sleeps and trains. I’m slightly worried half the time because he’s lying down, he’s a very relaxed horse.”

Another Tattersalls purchase for whom Boughey holds Royal Ascot aspirations is Soprano, who impressed on her racecourse bow at Newmarket and is being targeted at the Group Two Albany Stakes.

The daughter of Starspangledbanner was bought for 100,000 guineas on behalf of owners Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, for whom Boughey trained Cachet to win last year’s 1000 Guineas.

Boughey added: “Soprano was very impressive on debut, and it didn’t really come as a huge surprise. She’d been showing up well at home and she’d done plenty of work through the dip at Newmarket.

“We wanted to start over five furlongs because it gave us a bit more time to let her have a bit of downtime before bringing her back up to try to have a tilt at the Albany Stakes.

“She’s a very straightforward filly and one we’ve got high hopes for through the summer and into the backend of the year.”

Michael Beale bid “good riddance” to Rangers’ trophy-less season as he looked forward to a summer reset before a stiffer challenge to champions Celtic.

Beale took over as Gers boss from Giovanni van Bronckhorst in November but was unable to halt the Hoops’ march to the title and they will look to clinch the domestic treble when they take on Championship side Inverness at Hampden Park on June 3.

The former Rangers assistant coach, whose side lost the Viaplay Cup final to Celtic and will be runners-up in the league, has started his squad rebuild with the addition of Norwich midfielder Kieran Dowell on a pre-contract and revealed “there are three of four things we know are there.”

Ahead of the final game of the season on Saturday against St Mirren in Paisley, Beale said: “This season is done after tomorrow. Good riddance to this season and we will come back next season and we will give it a right good go.

“I am really excited about pre-season. It is not the easiest thing to do, come into a club in the middle of the season when part of the season has been written. I am glad the summer is upon us.

“I am relishing everything being re-set and giving ourselves an opportunity to have a really strong pre-season, some new players coming in, bringing new energy and enable me to really fully imprint my ideas on the team.

“I am looking forward to a full pre-season, everything being re-set, the league being re-set to zero, and a lot of optimism around what we can achieve.”

Asked if he was confident of giving Celtic a much stronger challenge next season after he builds his new squad, the former QPR boss said: “I am. Otherwise I wouldn’t be sat here.

“My excitement for this summer is because I see the work we are doing in the background.

“We are very close to what I want and if I get that in I will be very pleased and we  will have a very strong pre-season, implement some new things and we will come out of it a much stronger team.

“I think the team will be in an immensely much better place than the team I inherited for sure, because it was different to the team I had left a year before.”

Stephen Robinson insists St Mirren have “massively over-achieved” this season despite a difficult end to their cinch Premiership campaign.

The Buddies made it into the top six for the first time under the current league set-up but the post-split fixtures have proved problematic.

The Paisley side have lost four and drawn two of their last six games with hopes of European football slipping away with a 3-0 defeat by Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday night.

However, speaking ahead of the final game of the season at home to Rangers on Saturday lunchtime, Robinson stressed that his squad deserve to be judged over the whole campaign and appreciated for their achievement.

The Northern Irishman said:  “This group of players have massively over-achieved from where people thought we would be.

“That needs recognised. It has to be recognised and we want Saturday to be about celebrating that.

“These boys have created history for St Mirren. We don’t want that to be forgotten, we want a full house at the end of the game to say thank you to the fans for their support but also for the fans to show their appreciation for what this group of boys and staff have done for the club this year.

“It has been a terrific season. We must not forget that.

“I think the season has caught up with us in the last five games in terms of depth of squad.

“We have had horrendous injuries up front with Curtis Main being our only fit striker although he is not actually fully fit.

“We have completed phase one of what we started out to do, in reality, probably a year before we envisaged it we got into the top six.

“The challenge is to strengthen, can we get the four or five players that will make us stronger and try to challenge for the top six again.

“That’s the hard bit, to go and do it again.”

Lewis Hamilton was third in opening practice at the Monaco Grand Prix which ended early after Alex Albon crashed out.

Hamilton, armed with a major Mercedes upgrade, finished the first running in Monte Carlo behind only Carlos Sainz, who topped the order for Ferrari, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton was ahead of both Red Bulls – with Sergio Perez fourth and world champion Max Verstappen, who complained on multiple occasions about the handling of his Red Bull, sixth. The Ferrari of Charles Leclerc split the Red Bull pair.

The red flags were deployed in the closing minutes when Albon lost control of his Williams through the opening Sainte Devote corner.

The London-born Thai slammed into the wall, but, despite admitting to banging his knees, he emerged relatively unscathed from the 100mph accident.

The same could however, not be said for Albon’s Williams following significant damage to the left-hand side of his machine.

After giving up on this season’s car on the eve of the opening race, Mercedes have arrived for the sixth round of the season in the sun-cooked principality with a new concept.

The Silver Arrows have abandoned their controversial zero-sidepod design, and introduced a new front suspension, new floor and cooling system in a change of development on a car which has contributed to the longest losing streak of Hamilton’s career.

On Sunday, it will be 539 days since Hamilton last stood on the top step of the podium at the penultimate round of the contentious 2021 season in Saudi Arabia.

And although Hamilton ended the opening running 0.663 sec behind Sainz, the seven-time world champion and his Mercedes team might take confidence from finishing ahead of both Red Bull drivers.

Verstappen and team-mate Perez are the only men to have won a race this year, but their rapid Red Bull is not necessarily suited to the narrow and slow-speed confines of the unique Monte Carlo configuration.

Sainz lapped a third of a second quicker than Alonso, with Verstappen 0.872 sec off the pace. Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell was only 15th, 1.6 sec back.

Elsewhere, Lando Norris finished seventh for McLaren as Nico Hulkenberg completed the fewest laps after he spun his Haas at the chicane on the exit of the tunnel.

Second practice gets under way at 1700 local time (1600 UK).

Roy Hodgson insisted he expects to be taking charge of Crystal Palace for the final time in Sunday’s Premier League season-ender at home to Nottingham Forest, but did not rule out staying on.

Hodgson took the reins at his boyhood club for the second time on a short-term contract after the sacking of Patrick Vieira, and has taken 17 points from nine games to steer Palace well clear of relegation trouble.

Such has been the turnaround in form that Hodgson has been seen as a candidate to take the job on a longer-term basis, but the 75-year-old said that was not on his mind.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is my last game,” Hodgson said. “I signed a contract here until the end of the season and I was grateful to do so. All along, I have seen this as my last game on my contract and as far as I’m concerned that’s what it is.”

When asked if he would be open to staying on if asked by chairman Steve Parish, Hodgson added: “I don’t know, I’ll wait until that day arrives if it ever arrives. At the moment I don’t have to concern myself with that.

“What’s on my table is to see my contract out, thank everyone for the last two and a half months and hopefully help the team get a result…I hope to leave all my options open.”

Hodgson confirmed that Wilfried Zaha – out of contract this summer – will miss Sunday’s match through injury, raising the possibility that the in-demand forward has played his final game for the club.

“Wilfried’s injury was sufficiently severe to keep him out of the next game,” Hodgson said. “He’ll need a week or two more to recover, so it won’t keep him out of next season. He will be fit for pre-season, but we won’t have the benefit of him on Sunday.”

Palace forward Ebere Eze has been celebrating his first international call up after being included in Gareth Southgate’s England squad to face Malta and North Macedonia next month, and former Three Lions boss Hodgson has offered the 24-year-old some pointers.

“The advice basically, after the congratulations – because as you say I am delighted for him and I’m happy Gareth (Southgate) and Steve (Holland) have seen what we have seen in him as well – but the only advice I can give him is to be himself,” he said.

“Go there and be relaxed enough to show how good he is. Show how good he is in training when he is here. If he does that, Gareth and Steve will be more than happy with him.”

The pressure will be off for both sides in Sunday’s match at Selhurst Park, with Forest’s victory over Arsenal last weekend having ended the threat of relegation at the end of their first season back in the top flight.

“[Cooper] has done a very good job,” Hodgson said. “In particular I think the last five games they have had an incredible upsurge in form. They have taken 10 points from their last five games. That’s top of table form not avoiding relegation form.

“They have taken everyone by surprise at the bottom who are fighting relegation, because many clubs thought they wouldn’t do that well. Hats off to him, hats off to his players and staff. It was very touching last weekend when they beat Arsenal and you saw the scenes after the game.

“It makes you realise how much staying in this league and doing well means to everyone, not just to your staff and people at the club but also to the fans.”