Saturday 18 November 2017 19:32, UK
Roy Hodgson claimed his Crystal Palace side had every right to feel hard done by after an excellent performance in their 2-2 draw with Everton at Selhurst Park.
The home side twice led through James McArthur - after 51 seconds - and Wilfried Zaha, but a Leighton Baines penalty and a goal from Oumar Niasse on the stroke of half-time earned the visitors a point.
Palace dominated possession and always looked the more likely side to earn all three points, and manager Hodgson has warned his players over dropping more points at home with Palace still rooted to the bottom of the Premier League.
"We feel hard done by. I don't think we could've played a lot better," Hodgson said. "The two goals [conceded] were of course unfortunate.
"You think the first one is actually a dive, I dare say it'll be debated and people will have their opinions but we thought that was a dive. And the second one was of our own making, we committed hari kari in the 47th minute to put them back into the game.
"If I take those two moments out of it, then I've got to be very satisfied by what the players did. I thought we bossed the game and played some excellent football but they couldn't score more than the two goals so as a result we've dropped two more points.
"With the West Ham draw, that's four points dropped and we can't afford to do that."
Hodgson was still impressed by his side's display, claiming that his midfield controlled the match against their opponents, with McArthur's early strike giving the hosts the perfect platform as they went in search of a second league win.
But Everton's first equaliser was shrouded in controversy as there appeared to be very little contact on Niasse from Scott Dann inside the box which resulted in Anthony Taylor pointing to the spot.
Hodgson added: "The way I saw it is that he's bursting into the penalty area between two defenders, and our centre-half is trying not to make contact with him.
"The contact comes from the player bursting in and taking advantage of the fact that he's made some contact with the defender and gone down, and in my opinion it's not a penalty."
Hodgson admitted afterwards that he had not been tempted to play Christian Benteke, who was introduced as a 75th-minute substitute, from the start, and the Eagles boss expects it to be another few weeks before the striker returns to full sharpness.
The former England manager continued: "I think you saw in the 20 minutes that he's rusty, that he hasn't played for a while. I don't think he'll be anywhere near his best for a few more weeks and a few more training sessions, but it's good to have him there.
"Of course he could and maybe should have won the game because he had such a good chance one-v-one with the goalkeeper towards the end of the game. So he's short of his best."
