Brighton 4-1 Crystal Palace: Roy Hodgson says he has 'resilience' to turn Eagles' poor form around
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Brighton 4-1 Crystal Palace: Eagles comprehensively outplayed in first half - Hodgson
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson says he has the "strength and resilience" to turn the team's poor form around after their defeat by rivals Brighton.
The Eagles lost 4-1 at Brighton on Saturday and have only won four of their past 17 league matches.
The 76-year-old was taunted by home supporters at the Amex Stadium, while the travelling fans displayed a banner sharing their discontent at the club.
"My years in the game have given me the resilience to cope," Hodgson said.
"Of course, taunts from away supporters are part and parcel of our lives.
"At the moment our own fans aren't very happy with anything that's going on at the club and they're making their feelings known as well.
"I signed up to be manager of this football club and I have got the strength, the resilience and the determination to see things through. I'm certainly not going to be cowed by that type of thing."
"I'm not going to give you the satisfaction to say that it hurts me as it's pretty obvious," Hodgson added.
"Everyone wants to be liked, everyone wants to be praised, everyone wants to be told they're the best and when that doesn't happen the answer is yes, it's a little bit hurtful."
Palace beat Sheffield United 3-2 in midweek with Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze starring. However, both had to be substituted with injury during that game and Eze was not fit enough to be in the squad while Olise was named on the bench.
'I don't have a crystal ball'
Roy Hodgson was criticised by some Crystal Palace fans for sending on Michael Olise as a substitute
Hodgson did call on Olise, when Palace were 3-0 down, but the winger only lasted 11 minutes after he had a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
"I was told that he couldn't start the game and everyone was quite comfortable with that," Hodgson said.
"They told me and he told me that he was fine to be on the bench and to play in the second half. Unfortunately, I don't have a crystal ball.
"It's the same as the hindsight of 'you were losing 3-0, why did you bring him on?' The answer to that is we brought him all the way here to be on the bench to play in the second half and wanted our better players on the pitch.
"It's not easy when you've got a player of his quality able to play to say 'by the way, I know we brought you all the way here to play in the second half but I've changed my mind, sit on the bench'."
The Olise injury was made worse by Palace also losing Marc Guehi to a knee injury in the first half.
It is the second time this season supporters have displayed banners voicing their frustration at how the club is being run. Fans also displayed a banner during the 5-0 loss to Arsenal in January.
"I think it harsh, I think it is wrong. I think Steve Parish has done a fantastic job for the club," said Hodgson.
"We understand the fans are unhappy, we got beaten heavily at Arsenal and came here and our fans expected us to win the game and we lost 4-1.
"It would be unrealistic to expect them to go home happy after that and unrealistic also to think the fans aren't going to protest. All I can say is we are doing our best.
"Of course you always empathise in the sense as a fan you want your team to win. But games have to be analysed.
"Fans will have come here with high hopes. Unfortunately at the moment, especially given the situation we find ourselves in, not even being able to field a team a bit more capable of doing that, you have to accept it isn't always going to work out that way.
"Dreams and hopes are one thing but at the same time there is reality and the reality today was, despite our best efforts, we were outplayed by a better team."
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