Crystal Palace woe deepens as hardcore fans lose faith and new boss Roy Hodgson has gone 459 days without a victory
Neil Ashton says the Eagles' 1-0 loss at home to Southampton shows the Prem's bottom side face a long and painful winter
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ROY HODGSON’S last win as a head coach was against Wales 459 days ago.
The poor fella, into the frying pan at Crystal Palace after replacing Frank de Boer, has forgotten how good that feeling is.
To pump his fists in the technical area. To slap the opposition manager on the back at the final whistle. To have a satisfying glass of red with his coaching staff.
Nobody at Palace got drunk on this performance. This is a glass-half-empty job, a long and painful slog through the winter months before the moment of truth next May.
Palace’s final game of the season is against West Brom and nobody at Selhurst Park needs reminding just how much Tony Pulis would love to send them down.
Sadly, there is still bad blood between Pulis and the Palace board.
Hodgson, Palace’s third manager in their last four Premier League home games, must rise above all that.
The 34-game battle to beat the drop became 33 when Steven Davis scored Southampton’s winner after just six minutes.
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Rock-bottom Palace, a better side than the league table suggests, have yet to pick up a point, yet to score a goal, yet to break sweat.
They are breaking all manner of unwanted records.
Hodgson, with three training sessions under his belt since he replaced De Boer, has to sort this mess out.
Selhurst Park, with an atmosphere that was once the envy of every Premier League club, has lost its edge. The fans are losing the faith.
They are tired of changing managers, tired of wondering what to expect after the Total Football revolution under De Boer became a Total Disaster.
The atmosphere down at the Palace — much like the performance — is leggy and lethargic.
That noisy red and blue racket in the Holmesdale Road end, the Palace Ultras, are even struggling to make that intimidating din again.
In the weeks to come, when champs Chelsea visit Selhurst Park after those nightmarish trips to Manchester City and Manchester United, Palace will need them more than ever.
Hodgson said: “We were greatly helped by the fans and they still believe it can change overnight. If we can get their help then that makes me more confident.
“In my dreams I didn’t see this defeat. But I have to swallow it and hope Tuesday’s cup game (against Huddersfield) gives a better feeling.”
Hodgson, no matter now hard he works on the training ground, needs those fans with him.
Defenders Mamadou Sakho and Pape Souare — playing again a year after his horrific car crash — could give them a lift with starts tomorrow.
But players who once looked so dependable in Palace shirts are being shown up. Big earners — Yohan Cabaye, Christian Benteke, Andros Townsend, Jason Puncheon — were big disappointments on Saturday.
Hodgson, who has made Steven Reid his coach, will have to get a game out of those boys again if Palace are to stand a chance of making up lost ground.
He said: “We need to work out a) who is good enough and b) who will roll their sleeves up and die for us in this cause because, at the moment, we are not doing well.
“In terms of confidence, you can’t go around saying, ‘You’ll be fine’. We need more but there’s no magic wand.”
Southampton, with Mario Lemina pulling the strings in the centre of midfield, were just too damn good.
Their new boss Mauricio Pellegrino looks to be settling in nicely with two wins already under his belt — way out of reach of clubs like Palace.
Hodgson added: “The job is to assess, organise, work out which ones going forward would be the ones that can help us out.
“I lost three of my first four games at Fulham and we only survived on the last day of the season at Portsmouth. We stayed up, though.”
If Hodgson pulls it off again, he will deserve a big pat on the back.
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