Crystal Palace boss Hodgson fuming at Zaha’s “diver” reputation after Watford stalemate

By Matt Woosnam

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson bemoaned star man Wilfried Zaha’s reputation for diving as his side played out a goalless draw with Watford.

Zaha went down twice inside the penalty area, the first time after having his shirt pulled by Christian Kabasele, and the second following contact from Adrian Mariappa, only to see himself denied both penalties and shown a yellow card for simulation by referee Chris Kavanagh.

He has gained a reputation – particularly amongst Watford fans – for going down easily, and Hodgson felt that this affected the referee’s decision not to award a penalty.

“I try hard not to be the person who bellyaches saying we should have had this or that,” he said.
“But having seen it again it was a pretty clear penalty decision and we consider ourselves unlucky there.

“I’m pretty sure that a lot of the people that see it on TV and discuss it are more likely to agree with me than otherwise.”

“Reputation is a dangerous thing – who gives them that reputation? He’s suffered badly because other managers come in and they give you [journalists] their version of the story and brand him as someone who dives for penalties, and the more it is written and spoken about, the more the legend is circulated.

“In my long period as a coach, I think I have a reputation as a relatively fair-minded person, and I would point out that he is anything other than a cheat or a diver. He is sometimes far too desperate to stay on his feet because he wants to score a goal himself, and because he moves at such speed there will be times, like in the first half, where he will be unbalanced and the referee saw that and didn’t give the penalty, and in my opinion that wasn’t one.

“I think it’s very unjust the treatment he gets. We are very happy to have him and as much as I wasn’t enamoured by his performance in the first half, I was in the second because he played very well.”

The opening 45 minutes saw Palace register just a solitary attempt on goal, with a James Tomkins header saved by Orestis Karnezis, whilst the Hornets saw Stefano Okaka’s header crash against the crossbar as they took control.

But the second half saw a much improved Eagles’ performance, with Luka Milivojevic and Tomkins hitting the woodwork, but they were unable to find a way through and both sides had to settle for a point, and Hodgson felt the result was fair.

“It was the ultimate game of two halves. Watford were clearly stronger, more determined and more aggressive in the first half and we allowed ourselves to be bullied out of too many situations, but in the second half we came to terms with that and started to match their quality and aggression.

“By doing that we found the time and the space to start playing our football and as a result we consider ourselves a bit unlucky not to have scored the goal that could have won us the game.

“We had a couple of situations on the goalline when we hit the inside of the crossbar and the inside of the post, and in our opinion we should have had a penalty. I don’t think we deserved more than a point from the game because after the first half we could have come in several goals to nil down.”