Former City star Clint Hill has thanked City's supporters for a superb reception after returning to the Britannia Stadium last night for the first time following his move to London in November.

The 29-year old defender made almost 100 appearances during his five year spell in the Potteries and admits last night's experience was very emotional.

Speaking exclusively to stokecityfc.com, he said: "It was very emotional because this place meant everything to me when I was here.

"I had such a hard time with injuries so to get the reception I got from the supporters was really touching.

"The fans meant everything to me and I wish them every success in the future. This is a great club and I hope they go on and get automatic promotion."

The battling defender was forced to produce a typically dogged display to thwart the Potters and he says many other teams would have faltered under the pressure.

"A lot of teams will crumble under the pressure that they put us under tonight," admits Clint.

"It was a very, very hard game. I thought we did really well in the first half, but in the second half they threw absolutely everything at us.

"We couldn't get our game together and in the end we were forced to through ourselves, our heads and every other part of our body in front of the goal to stop it going in.

"We were lucky that we didn't concede earlier because if we did it could have been a different story.

"We rode our luck at times but the character and spirit we showed was fantastic and that typifies how we have been playing recently."

With Palace having to travel to both Watford and Hull City during their final four games, Clint insists he will be striving to do the Potters a favour and dent the hopes of City's promotion rivals.

"We have got to play a couple of teams they are battling with and hopefully I can help them out a bit in them games.

"We need the wins ourselves so hopefully we can get ourselves in there and do Stoke a favour at the same time.

"They aren't out of the automatic promotion race, not by a long way.

"I was here long enough to know what the lads are capable of and they just need to pick themselves up now and go again."