Tomkins: ‘West Ham is massive game for myself’

Former Hammer James Tomkins admits that  Crystal Palace would have preferred the visit of his old club not to be disrupted by the international break. When asked if Palace would have wanted the derby to follow straight on from the 1-1 draw at Everton, Tomkins told eagles.cpfc.co.uk: “For sure. We’d have liked to have played it sooner but the international break comes and hopefully we can get a few of our injuries back, that’s the main thing.

“We’ll rest up, put a good shift in during training. West Ham is my old team – it is a massive one for myself. Hopefully I’m showing what I can do and I’ll go from strength to strength, When I play with Scott I’m on the left-hand side and with Damo, being left-footed, I move to the right. I like to feel I can play both. I’m quite versatile and can play most positions along the backline. It doesn’t matter to me. I’ve played with a lot of centre-halves in my time.”