Crystal Palace appoint Paul Hart as manager until end of season

Crystal Palace have appointed Paul Hart as their new manager following the departure of Neil Warnock. The club wasted little time in hiring a new manager on a contract until the end of the season after Warnock left to join Queens Park Rangers last night. Hart, who himself left QPR in January after only five games in charge , could appoint Dougie Freedman, currently at Southend United, and John Pemberton as his assistants. Hart walked out of Loftus Road, having won a single game, losing two and drawing two. He had succeeded Jim Magilton as manager on 17 December after the Irishman departed following a dressing-room dispute with the midfielder Akos Buzsaky. Before that, Hart managed another financially stricken club, Portsmouth. The former Eagles managers Steve Coppell and Iain Dowie and the former Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate, a former Palace player, have also been linked with the post.