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