Roy Hodgson Laments 'Cruel Blow' After Crystal Palace Fall to Late Defeat Against Spurs

Roy Hodgson has lamented his side's inability to hold onto a 0-0 draw at home to Tottenham on Sunday afternoon. 

Harry Kane broke the deadlock with a header in the 89th minute after Wayne Hennessey had kept the top four challengers at bay until the closing minutes. 

Speaking to Sky Sports after the defeat, he said: "To fight as well as we did, and to show the spirit we did, and to work as hard as we did, when you actually concede in the 89th minute it's a cruel blow, but we know what a cruel game football is so we have to pick ourselves up and try and go again. 

"At the moment we don't have the firepower and the players that we would need to go toe-to-toe with these teams."

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Crystal Palace kept tight and restricted movement for the likes of Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli in the clash at Selhurst Park, but Spurs kept knocking and their hard work eventually paid off. 

"I thought it was a really hard-working performance, I thought they gave everything they had for the club, and I can't really criticise that in any way," he added. 

Palace were without 12 senior players due to injury and their injury list continued to grow with defender James Tomkins being forced off with an injury. 

"Tomkins had been very, very good for us in that position.He went down with serious cramp and tried to carry on, but we could see straight away that it wasn’t going to work because he couldn’t run properly," he said in his post-match press conference. 

Hodgson heaped praise onto debutant Aaron Wan-Bissaka who was given his first start at right-back after an injury to Joel Ward. The former England manager felt the youngster put in a confident display on a difficult afternoon.

He said: "I thought he was excellent. He had a lot of defending to do because they had so much of the ball, they had a lot of corners and a lot around our penalty area. He must be feeling very pleased with his performance or as pleased as you can be when you're on the field for the defeated team."

Roy Hodgson and his team now face Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all in the month of March.