West Brom boss Roy Hodgson could not hide his disappointment after seeing his side bow out of the FA Cup to Norwich.
But Baggies boss insists league was always priority
West Bromwich Albion boss Roy Hodgson could not hide his disappointment after seeing his side bow out of the FA Cup to Norwich.
Just a matter of weeks after the Canaries took a 2-1 victory away from The Hawthorns in their league match, they repeated the feat.
Grant Holt had fired Norwich ahead to give them the lead at the break, but once Marc-Antoine Fortune had levelled early in the second half West Brom looked favourites to take the win.
But Norwich claimed the victory as substitute Simeon Jackson took advantage of an error from Craig Dawson.
Hodgson, though, refused to blame Dawson for the defeat, saying: "It is a great pity for the game to end that way and for the player.
"Craig is making his way into the game and has been playing a bit recently and it is unfortunate but these things can happen in the game, but it is sad to lose it as I didn't think our performance deserved to lose as our keeper was a virtual spectator throughout."
Full strength
Hodgson admits that he did not play his full-strength side but insisted he wanted to progress.
"Everyone tries to do our best, but obviously we have several players who are recovering from injury our who are not fit, so it was important to put fully fit players on the pitch and I think that team answered my expectations of them," he said.
"But we didn't get the result and that has been the case quite often here and we are obviously hoping that will change and we will now concentrate on our primary target of staying in the league.
"We take the cup the seriously and try and do our best but there is no doubt that perhaps having a cup run, it doesn't help a great deal.
"When people look back at my time at Fulham they don't replay the quarter-finals etc, they remember the league place and we know where our priorities lie and there is no doubt if this was a league game several of the players would have played, but I want to keep them up my sleeve for the big matches we have coming.
"1-1 would not have pleased us also, a midweek return at Norwich would not have been high on our priority list, we wanted to win the game and go into the hat for the next round."
Missing players
Hodgson insists when his missing players return, he would hope for an upturn in their form.
"When Long, Odemwingie, Reid, Olsson, Billy Jones, Nicky Shorey - players like these are in the team we are hoping that things will be different for us.
"I am just bitterly disappointed we could not send the fans home happy with victory. We have sent them home unhappy as we have done on many an occasion this season."
Hodgson did confirm that Jerome Thomas and Gonzalo Jara had been added to their injury list.
"Thomas has turned his ankle and Jara pulled a groin so we have lost two players," he said.
