Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend: I owe Roy Hodgson so much for helping advance my career

Andros Townsend praised Roy Hodgson’s incredible “service to football” after Crystal Palace’s 2-0 defeat away at Liverpool on Sunday evening.

The 73 year old revealed on Tuesday that he would be stepping down as Eagles boss at the end of the season.

Speaking to Palace TV, Townsend said: “I’ve said many times, I wouldn’t be standing here in front of you without Roy Hodgson. He gave me my chance for England, when I only had three Premier League starts under my belt. He believed in me back in 2013 and fast forward 10 years, he’s still believing in me. I owe a huge amount to Roy Hodgson, I’ve just told him that, hopefully he can enjoy his retirement.

“He’s given 45 years of service to football and hopefully we can appreciate him even more now.

“We gave today’s game a real go, we had nothing to lose coming here and you could see that by our performance in the first 30 minutes.

“We pressed them high, we had a few chances but unfortunately, when you come up against the former champions Liverpool, you have to take your chances. I’m guilty of missing a scoreable chance. Wilf [Zaha] missed a chance and ultimately that was our two chances of the game and the game slipped away from us after that.

“[When asked if his chance at 0-0 will keep him awake tonight] Yes probably. I haven’t scored enough goals this season, that was a chance to add to my tally. Unfortunately, it didn’t go in and it wasn’t to be today.

“The atmosphere [at Anfield] today was incredible, it’s just a relief to have fans back. We had our fans back on Wednesday and they made a huge difference to us. This crowd made a huge difference for Liverpool today.

“Even though we lost, it was good to have fans back for the last week of the season and hopefully they we will be back for good now.”