‘Wonder goal the difference’ – Palace boss Hodgson delivers verdict on 1-0 defeat at Spurs

Roy Hodgson described Harry Kane’s strike before half-time as a “wonder goal” as Crystal Palace suffered a 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

The only goal of the game came just before half-time when England for Kane found Pedro Porro on the left-hand side.

The Spanish wing-back clipped a ball towards the back post for Kane to head past Sam Johnstone to give the hosts the lead.

Kane’s opener was enough to give Ryan Mason his first win as interim boss.

The defeat was the second Palace have suffered since the 75-year-old returned to the club for the rest of the season.

“I saw us on the ball for large periods of the game, and I saw us attempting to get into the right areas,” said Hodgson.

“We didn’t have the success we had last week [against West Ham] or the weeks before, but that’s a credit to Tottenham, deciding to defend as they did against us. 

“It’s never easy to find that bit of space when there are a lot of players in and around the box.

“I thought for large period, we took the game to them and looked as if we might create the chance we needed to get back into the game after Kane’s wonder goal.

“We played well in the first half – we didn’t deserve to go in 1-0 down. But the opponents have the right to score a goal and the right to produce that piece of wonderful skill from Kane to get the ball wide to Porro and to leap as he did to score the header.

“That shouldn’t detract from the fact that the first-half performance was very much what we were expecting from the team.

“We knew it would be hard to create clear-cut chances in the second half. But we took the game to Tottenham and even changed our play to 4-4-2 to try and get the goal.

“We couldn’t get it out of the corner for the last eight minutes, which was frustrating.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD