‘Freak’ - Crystal Palace boss admits ‘beautiful’ thing Newcastle United player did at St James’ Park

Palace were beaten 4-0 by Newcastle at St James’ Park with goals from Jacob Murphy, Anthony Gordon, Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson. The win extended The Magpies’ unbeaten run in all competitions to eight matches.

It was the first time Crystal Palace had lost a Premier League match by more that two goals since Hodgson returned as manager in March.

“We came here thinking and believing that we could come here and give Newcastle a good game and maybe make life a bit difficult for them,” said the former England manager. “We fell woefully short in that department and our first half was really nowhere near what we’ve been able to do up to now and what I thought we would still do despite the fact that this is a tough ask against such a good team because [Newcastle] are hard to defend against.”

Newcastle took the lead after just four minutes as Jacob Murphy latched onto Kieran Trippier’s dinked ball and lobbed Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone with a strike the winger would later admit was an attempted cross.

“I thought we were somewhat unfortunate with the first goal of course,” Hodgson added. “That didn’t help, a freak goal.

“It was well taken, a beautiful touch from Trippier so congratulations and if we’d have scored it I’d have been delighted.

“It’s a tough goal to have against you after a few minutes because that’s not one that’s come about because you’ve got it so totally wrong defensively.”