Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson: We could have scored more in 2-1 Premier League victory against Fulham

BY SAM SMITH

Roy Hodgson was happy with Crystal Palace’s performance in their 2-1 victory against Fulham – but felt the Eagles could have scored a couple more.

Goals by Jairo Riedewald and Wilfried Zaha put Palace two ahead at Craven Cottage. Tom Cairney’s stoppage-time thunderbolt did not prompt a late comeback by the hosts – who had Aboubakar Kamara sent off.

Michy Batshuayi and Zaha both had goals disallowed for offside. Palace’s attacking performance was much improved on last weekend’s draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, in which they failed to have a shot on target in open play.

“We scored two good goals and may have scored one or two more,” said Hodgson. “The quality of our attacking play was good. We made good decision about when to keep the ball short and when to try to play the ball longer to use the pace of Michy and Wilf.

“I think we can be very satisfied with our day’s work. That’s why last week [following the 1-1 draw against Brighton] I was not bitterly disappointed because you know you are going to have games when things don’t quite go your way, or you don’t play quite as well as you think you are capable of doing.

“Today we conceded another injury time goal, a fantastic strike. But I have to say that throughout the 90 minutes we were very good value for our three points.”

The win was the South Londoners’ first since beating Manchester United in the second match of the season. It leaves them fifth in the Premier league after six games, although most of the division is still yet to play this weekend.

This is a start to a season only matched by the club’s successful beginning to the 2016-17 campaign under Alan Pardew. They finished 14th that term, with Pardew sacked in December following a poor run of form and replaced by Sam Allardyce.