Hodgson frustrated after 31 shots fail to result in Palace goal

Roy Hodgson was frustrated after Crystal Palace failed to break down Cardiff City in the Premier League.

Palace, who came into Saturday’s game on a high after beating Manchester City, had 31 shots – their highest tally in a Premier League game since 2003-04 – but had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

Andros Townsend hit the bar after only 66 seconds, while Luka Milivojevic struck the post with a late free-kick.

Cardiff almost nicked it on the break late on when Kadeem Harris was denied by home goalkeeper Vicente Guaita, as Palace and Cardiff moved seven and three points clear of the bottom three respectively.

“I’m pleased about the number of chances we created but I’m not pleased we didn’t convert one of them,” Hodgson told reporters.

“It’s something we’ve had to deal with for a large part of the season. If we had more fortune in front of goal then we would be nowhere near where we are, we’d have assembled a lot more points.

“Football is about scoring goals and taking those semi opportunities, which good goalscorers find a way of scoring.

“We have to bite the bullet, we would have liked to have won this game adding to the three points we got at Manchester City, but there’s always a team as equally determined as you are to get a good result from the game and that’s what we found here with Cardiff. They came here with a good defensive set-up, a good plan and were determined to make sure they didn’t lose the game.

“We asked as many questions as it’s possible to ask without obviously being able to create those really simple chances and really clear-cut chances as their five at the back were working very hard doing a good job as one would expect them to do.

“We had over 20 shots in the second half; we hit the crossbar and forced saves from their goalkeeper, but the ball wouldn’t go in for us.”

“We weren’t complacent, we knew it was going to be just as difficult as the City game and it turned out to be that way.”

https://t.co/l5keuUGQSC pic.twitter.com/C9ifpA3mPl

— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) 26 December 2018

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock was glad to restrict the likes of Townsend and Wilfried Zaha, but insisted his team had been aiming for all three points against his old club.

Warnock told BBC Sport: “I thought we were a bit nervous in the first 10 minutes but then we grew into the game and looked more positive. We looked to play and created some good chances.

“We didn’t try to shut the shop up, towards the end we were trying to get a winner. I thought their goalie made the best save.

“You’re going to have opportunities when you have Zaha and Townsend, and players like that. So we tried to limit them and we did. We stayed strong and on another day we could have got all three points.”

It was the first-ever Premier League match between two managers over the age of 70.

Hodgson said: “We don’t regard ourselves as 70, that’s the problem you see! We put that fact behind us and we certainly don’t feel it.”