Roy Hodgson reveals ‘key’ aspect of Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win at Southampton

Roy Hodgson believed Crystal Palace’s defensive work was the “key” to the South Londoners beating Southampton 2-0 on Saturday afternoon.

The Eagles took the lead in the 54th minute when Gavin Bazunu parried Jordan Ayew’s shot into the path of Eberechi Eze to rebound home.

Eze then doubled his tally and Palace’s advantage in the 68th minute. The Greenwich-born playmaker found himself and drilled a shot from distance beyond Irish keeper Bazunu. 

Palace have recorded three wins on the bounce under the 75-year-old, moving nine points clear of the bottom three.

Palace’s back four made a total of 11 clearances during the 90 minutes.

“I enjoyed the second half,” Hodgson said.

“I thought Southampton were good in the first half. They did all the things I would expect of a team fighting for their lives at the bottom of the league and in a home game which is so important for them to win it.

“They played with a lot of energy and intensity and made runs behind us which stretched our defending capacity to the hilt.

“We got through that, largely down to a back four that did a really good job under that pressure.

“In the second half, we tweaked one or two things that got us back to the type of football that I was hoping to see us play. It turned out to be enough because of Eze’s two goals.

“The two full-backs deserve an awful lot of credit. The defensive work in that back four, dealing with some of the situations they had to deal with, was the key to our success.

“It’s the forwards who get the plaudits for finishing the game off and getting us the points, but for me, those four and the goalkeeper were very important for us today.”