Schlupp calls on Palace to turn Selhurst Park into a fortress

Jeffrey Schlupp (photo: Dan Westwell)

Midfielder Jeffrey Schlupp has challenged Crystal Palace to maintain their unbeaten record at home.

After an opening-day draw with Everton, Palace collected their first home win of the campaign by beating new boys Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Eagles had a poor record on home turf last season despite being backed by arguably the division’s noisiest fans.

Schlupp wants to see an improvement in results at Selhurst Park this term and feels the win over Villa is the ideal spring board.

“It’s a good start at home this season. We didn’t have the best of results at home last year and we wanted to change that this year,” he told Palace TV. “We wanted to make it a fortress again.

“The fans are great every time we play here and we want to pay them back with results and so far, so good.”

Schlupp’s defence-splitting pass set up Jordan Ayew for the winning goal against Villa and the 26-year-old wants the striker to get many more.

“We want our strikers to be scoring goals and Jordan’s been really clinical in front of goal,” Schlupp added. “We’re going to keep feeding him, so he’ll score some more.

“We wanted to follow up that great result last week [against Manchester United] with another win, at home. I feel like from the first half all the way through the game we deserved it.

“I feel comfortable playing anywhere down that left side to be honest. I’m finding myself further forward when I get in and amongst the goals and assists. I’ve done that [on Saturday] again as well as last week and I want to continue.”