Roy Hodgson ‘feeling better’ after missing Crystal Palace defeat at Aston Villa

Crystal Palace first-team coach Paddy McCarthy said Roy Hodgson is feeling better after missing his team’s 3-1 loss at Aston Villa.
The 76-year-old was taken ill on Saturday morning and did not travel to Villa Park, but his team appeared to be in good spirits after Odsonne Edouard’s early second-half goal.

Jhon Duran leveled for Villa in the 87th minute, and goals in added time from Douglas Luiz, a penalty that survived a thorough pitchside assessment by referee Darren England, and Leon Bailey gave Villa all three points in the Premier League battle.

Despite his recent heartbreak, Hodgson is on the mend.

“He is feeling better, so we are hopeful that he can continue to feel better and be back with us sooner rather than later,” McCarthy, who took over with coach Ray Lewington, said.

“All of the planning was done with Roy. We found out about his illness early in the morning, perhaps between breakfast and the pre-match lunch. We simply carried on as planned.

“We had contact before the game, and then there was a lot of stuff going on.” We spoke with him before the game, and we will surely speak with him after the game.”

There was more than four minutes between referee England awarding a penalty for a foul by Chris Richards on Ollie Watkins and standing by his judgement after being asked by the VAR to review it.

England determined that a foul occurred before the Palace defender won the ball.

McCarthy, on the other hand, believes the delay indicates it was not a foul.

“To concede a goal in the 87th minute and then concede a goal later in controversial circumstances is disappointing,” he remarked.

“We weren’t playing the second half the way I wanted, but sometimes we have to play with our hearts and our passions.” We wanted the referee to add minutes and create chances in the second half when we played a different approach.

“I liked it. It’s difficult since they had one or two chances to score after we conceded the goal. But, in my experience, there are moments when we have to make the decision to play with our hearts and more emotion than usual, and today was one of those days.”