CRYSTAL Palace skipper Joel Ward is demanding an instant response when the Eagles host Spurs on Friday evening after yesterday’s 4-0 defeat at Newcastle.
The visitors made the worst possible start by falling behind after just four minutes to Jacob Murphy’s opener following a VAR check for offside.
It looked like Palace might go in at the break with just a one-goal deficit, only for Anthony Gordon to double his side’s tally on 44 minutes before Sean Longstaff added a third in stoppage time.
The outcome was put beyond all doubt midway through the second half as Callum Wilson completed the scoring to cap a miserable day in Tyneside for the Londoners.
Defender Ward accepted the display fell well below standards, especially when you consider Palace had conceded just 18 goals in the Premier League beforehand since Roy Hodgson’s return.
He told cpfc.co.uk: “I think we all know we can do better and we need to do better.
“We were outclassed today, but it’s about how we bounce back from that.
“In tough times, it’s how you respond and we’ve got to put that right on Friday night against Tottenham.”
Hodgson also acknowledged Palace had got exactly what they deserved but pointed out the timing of those second and third Newcastle goals had killed his side’s chances.
The SE25 manager said: “I don’t think we came anywhere near the football that we’d have been capable of playing both defensively and offensively.
“To come here and lose is one thing, we might have been able to accept that.
“But it is hard to accept coming here and losing so comprehensively as we have done here today.”
Hodgson added: “To have so few players (perform well) – (they) are going to be looking tomorrow morning and assessing their performances and coming up probably with the same conclusion that I’ve come up with – that we just weren’t anywhere near good enough.
“To be fair, I suppose the two goals that came in the 45th and 47th minutes didn’t help us.
“They really didn’t because coming out for the second half 0-3 against such a very good team was always going to make life unbelievably uncomfortable.
“Had it been 0-1, maybe we could have made a slightly better fist of the game.
“But I can’t say they didn’t deserve to come in at 3-0 because they actually created a lot of goal chances and played very well.”
