Roy Hodgson returns to Ashton Gate with Crystal Palace... and he's still battling for survival

Roy Hodgson on Tuesday returns to the place where his managerial career in England began — and he will be hoping for a better time than he endured 35 years ago.

The Crystal Palace boss spent four months in charge of Bristol City in 1982 when, although he had already taken his first steps into coaching in Sweden, he was still making his way.

Hodgson is frank about that spell, describing it as “nothing short of a disaster”, and he takes struggling Palace back to Ashton Gate in the fourth round of Carabao Cup with his side in need of a boost ahead of their crunch Premier League game against West Ham on Saturday.

Hodgson had arrived at City in 1980 as assistant to Bob Houghton but, following two relegations in two years, he was handed the reins in January of the 1981-82 season.

The club was in financial crisis and had to sell its best players, the results were poor and, with relegation to the old Division Four around the corner, Hodgson was sacked by April.

Archive video footage shows Hodgson talking about the problems and, while the circumstances are very different, his comments could also relate to his latest job. In the ITV News footage, a 34-year-old Hodgson says: “You do not suddenly have a change of management and that manager says one or two magic words and all the problems that have beset the club over recent months disappear.

“It is important that I and the players put the blinkers on and concentrate on the football side to get some results.”

Fast forward to today and Hodgson needs just that, with Palace bottom of the Premier League and going in search of a morale-boosting win against Championship opponents.

Several key players will be rested, with one eye on the West Ham game, because survival and not progress in the Carabao Cup is the priority. But Hodgson will still field a strong team, including Jason Puncheon, Wayne Hennessey, James Tomkins, Martin Kelly, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Jairo Riedewald and Bakary Sako.

“Every game is a chance for us to try and show that we are a good team and get results,” said Hodgson. “But I do not think there is a manager in the country playing midweek this week who would say the priority is the midweek game instead of the game this weekend.”

Palace are yet to score away from Selhurst Park this season and they face a difficult test against a side who are seventh in the Championship.

Bristol City have made a strong start under Lee Johnson and are looking to bounce back from a 3-0 home defeat to Leeds — their worst performance of the season — on Saturday.

Facing Palace on Tuesday will be defender Hordur Magnusson, who last came up against one of Hodgson’s sides in June 2016. Ring any bells?

England 1 Iceland 2 in Nice.

Even more reason for the Palace boss’s luck to change.