Harry Kane’s Header Gives Tottenham Narrow Victory Against Crystal Palace

If Harry Kane does finally leave Tottenham in the summer then it’s in this type of match they will miss him most of all.

The England captain’s 28th goal of the season took him ahead of Wayne Rooney into second place in the Premier League’s all-time list of top scorers and delivered a first victory as interim head coach for Ryan Mason to revive their hopes of qualifying for European competition.

While this was far from a vintage performance against Roy Hodgson’s in-form Crystal Palace side who could feel hard done by not to have earned at least a point, none of that really matters when you have Kane in this kind of form.

Created and scored by the striker who turns 30 in July, his winning goal on the stroke of half-time could be the encouragement Spurs need to nail down a place in Europe next season and perhaps even convince Kane that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Already the Premier League’s youngest-ever manager after his first stint as a caretaker at the age of 29 in 2021, Mason insisted he had learned from that experience after being tasked with steadying the ship following the departure of Cristian Stellini last month.

But with 44 years and a lifetime spent in the dugout separating him from opposite number Hodgson, the former midfielder, who was handed his England debut by the Palace manager in 2015, was prepared for a real test of his coaching credentials. Dejan Kulusevski, Eric Dier and Ivan Perisic all made way after the dramatic defeat against Liverpool last weekend, with Emerson Royal and Clément Lenglet returning and Pedro Porro deployed in a more advanced role on the right flank.

Hodgson admitted this week that he had found the number of late managerial changes made by Premier League clubs “a little bit strange” despite his instant success at Palace that has steered them clear of relegation trouble. But given Tottenham’s recent travails, he would have sensed an opportunity to secure a first away win in the top-flight against them since November 1997 and named an unchanged team from their own seven-goal thriller against West Ham.

But it was Tottenham who produced the game’s first significant moment of danger when Cristian Romero’s header struck the crossbar from Porro’s corner 17 minutes in. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was miles off target with another good chance after linking up with Kane, while Michael Olise – who was linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain this week – drilled a shot straight at Fraser Forster in the Tottenham goal.

Joel Ward almost made a complete hash of clearing another Romero header from a corner before Wilfried Zaha broke downfield and was unlucky not to pick out Jordan Ayew with his cutback after leaving Ben Davies for dead. Two precise crosses from Olise in the space of 60 seconds also caused the Tottenham defence an issue as Palace pushed forward but having conceded 15 goals in their last four matches, they stood firm.