Roy Hodgson: Leeds mauling ‘nice’ for Palace but still work to do for safety

Posted Monday, April 10, 2023 by PA

Roy Hodgson warned his Crystal Palace side still had plenty to do to secure their Premier League status after their 5-1 win at relegation rivals Leeds.

Palace rode out a first-half storm at Elland Road after falling behind to Patrick Bamford’s header and completed a remarkable turnaround to move six points clear of the bottom three.

The Londoners equalised in time added on at the end of the first period through Marc Guehi and stunned Leeds with two goals in three minutes after the restart from Jordan Ayew and Eberechi Eze.

Odsonne Edouard struck a fourth as the hosts capitulated and Ayew sealed the rout with his second to make it back-to-back wins for Hodgson since he returned to the club for his second spell in charge.

Hodgson said: “It gives us a nice Sunday evening and a nice Easter Monday and a nice week’s training, but it’s still divorced from the number of points we need to stay in the league.

“So there’s plenty more performances like today that we have to produce and the good thing I think is that we won’t need to produce them by pulling rabbits out of hats.

“We need to produce them by making certain we do the right things tactically, defensively and offensively and we show the right determination, which we certainly did second half.”

Palace were indebted to goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, who produced three crucial first-half saves in his first top-flight appearance for the club as a replacement for the injured Vicente Guaita.

“Sam deserves an awful lot of credit,” Hodgson said. “Especially having had to battle through injuries and watch Vicente Guaita play on a regular basis in front of him.

“This was a great opportunity for him to show what a good quality goalkeeper he is and he took that and that’s all you can hope for.”

Hodgson agreed Eze and midfield partner Michael Olise were key to Palace’s fightback against Leeds, with the latter assisting three of their goals.

“All we (coaches) are, we’re orchestra leaders,” the former England boss said. “We know the music, we know all the notes, but they have to play the tune.”

Leeds remain in relegation danger. They have secured three league wins under Javi Gracia, but the Spaniard was at a loss to explain this setback, which leaves them two points above the bottom three.

He said: “I cannot explain because we played a very good first half. It’s true conceding the goal before half-time, it changed the game.

“First half we were solid defending, good distances to defend, being compact, creating chances, many shots on target.

“The feeling was good and it was our moment, the moment we could kill the game. After that, the second half was tough for us.”