Hodgson says debating decisions ‘like a pantomime’

Jo Harrison

Roy Hodgson admitted Crystal Palace have to accept the decisions that went against them in their loss to Manchester United.

Palace fell to their sixth straight defeat against Man Utd, but could have felt aggrieved at not being awarded a penalty for a challenge on Wilfried Zaha.

They also had a Jordan Ayew goal ruled out by VAR for a narrow offside. But Hodgson was in no mood to complain.

“What’s the point in getting into it?” he told Match of the Day. “If I said it was, they say it wasn’t, it becomes like a Christmas pantomime.

“I thought it was a good goal. That’s what VAR gives us at the moment. If that had been scored against us I wouldn’t be expecting it to ruled out but that’s what we have to take now.”

There was a disheartening moment after United’s second goal, when Patrick Van Aanholt had to be taken off on a stretcher.

Hodgson rued Palace’s bad luck with injuries in defence, admitting he wasn’t expecting the left-back to return before the end of the season.

“We’ve had bad luck with defenders, it’s testing our reserves in that respect. Patrick has hardly missed a game and I don’t know how long it takes to mend a dislocated shoulder but I can only hope he comes back again next season.”

Overall, the former England manager was pleased with Palace’s performance, saying the defeat was “hard to take”.

He added: “We’ve done so well, I thought we put in just as much effort as they did and we still came away with nothing and on the end of another defeat, which is hard to take.”