Saturday 10 February 2018 20:10, UK
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson says his side were "punished" for defensive errors during their 3-1 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park.
Second-half strikes from Gylfi Sigurdsson, Oumar Niasse and Tom Davies consigned the Eagles to defeat on Merseyside despite Luka Milivojevic's late consolation from the penalty spot.
Palace had subdued Everton during the opening period with the visitors creating chances of their own through Yohan Cabaye and Christian Benteke. But just 45 seconds into the re-start, Everton were ahead and Hodgson was left to rue his side's shortcomings.
He said: "It's very frustrating because when we came in [at half-time] we were happy with how we'd played in the first half. We had managed to keep Everton at bay, and we'd created one or two chances of our own.
"To go down to a deflected goal right at the start of the second half was very disappointing and very frustrating. But I thought that even at 2-0 we came back and started to play some good football and weren't totally out of it until the third goal.
"That was a poor goal to concede unfortunately, because at 2-0 a goal would've allowed us to exert some pressure towards the end of the game. But at 3-0, we weren't going to have enough time to score the goals."
This first Premier League meeting of two ex-England managers since Kevin Keegan's Manchester City won 1-0 at home against Sir Bobby Robson's Newcastle in May 2004, had been played against the backdrop of some animosity between Allardyce and Hodgson.
However, the Palace boss said his Everton counterpart had called to apologise for mockingly calling his speech impediment during Allardyce's meeting with undercover reporters posing as businessmen which eventually cost him his job as national team manager.
Hodgson was keen to focus more on the result, which leaves them in 14th position and two points above the relegation zone ahead of a difficult run of fixtures. Palace face Tottenham next at Selhurst Park before games against Manchester United and Chelsea.
Hodgson added: "I can't criticise the players for any lack of character or lack of effort or determination.
"We were punished because we made some defensive mistakes and Everton profited from those mistakes by scoring the goals that put us behind in the game but it wasn't a question of us surrendering the goals.
"Unfortunately, mistakes are part of the game and we were punished for them."
