Dwight Gayle agrees new contract with Crystal Palace

The 25-year-old was Palace's top scorer in the past two seasons but has spent much of the current campaign troubled by hamstring problems that have restricted him to one Premier League goal -- scored in the 2-2 draw with West Ham United on April 2 -- in 12 appearances so far.

(Reuters)

"I believe that contract is agreed," Pardew told reporters ahead of Palace's Premier League clash with 14th-placed Everton on Wednesday.

"If it's signed, I'm not 100 percent sure, but he's a player who scores goals and we've missed him for long periods this season.

"All our strikers have been out for too long: we've never had a continuous run with one of them, and that's probably one of the reasons the goals tally next to their names don't really reflect their ability."

Palace are 16th in the league table on 37 points ahead of Everton's visit.

"If we beat Everton then it would be very difficult for other teams (in the bottom three) to catch us. So we want to hunt down as many points as possible," Pardew added.

(Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)