BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

Crystal Palace reached the 5^th round of the FA Cup by easily dispatching a Spurs side, which has now crashed out of both domestic Cup competitions within the space of four days in London. The Palace Manager Roy Hodgson said: “I have been happy with the way the team has been playing for quite some time. Maybe sometimes we haven’t got the result our performance would give. We defended well throughout the game and we had that stroke of fortune just before half time after missing a chance to go 3-0.  They forced Julian Speroni to make two good saves in the second half and won a penalty shortly after that which was a soft one. We were fortunate Kieran Trippier missed that. It would have been much harder in the second half. We knew they would have had a lot of the ball, swarm forward with their centre backs and we had to be disciplined and keep our shape not to chasing the ball so they could play around us”.

Connor Wickham who got the first goal had not played for the club for over two years due to injury and the manager said: “It is incredible. It is a credit to him. I thought the good news story for Crystal Place was that Julian Speroni broke the club record of clean sheets with 112 in four hundred and something performances which is fantastic, especially after last week when he had to shoulder some of the blame for the goals we conceded at Anfield. For Connor to fight his way back and crown it with a goal is another really good piece of good news for the club. All round today has been a good day. From time to time you get days that balance themselves out. We have three big games coming up against Fulham, West Ham and Southampton and we have to reproduce these performances.”

Andros Townsend got the second goal after Kyle-Walker Peters handled the ball in his area.

The Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said: “It was a fair result. They scored and we did not. We can talk about possession, corners and every other thing. The truth is in football if you do not score you do not deserve to win games. They scored twice.”  

The Spurs manager’s team selection raised eyebrows in some quarters but he said:” I have no regrets about the team. We played with the best team we could play. I think it was a moment for different players to play to help the team. We came from a crazy fixture and we were forced to take some decisions.  We are going to play on Wednesday and Saturday. I told you this season is going to be a massive challenge for us. I am disappointed because after Thursday and today again we are out of two cup competitions. Now we need to be positive and be ready. We have the Champions league and our position in the league to play. That is a massive motivation for the whole club.”

 When you lose you try to find out why. People have different views and opinion and feel they are right. When you lose you lose and you cannot debate we are out of the cup today. We were in four competitions until four days ago.”

 “We have a team that we are not building to win titles. Today is a moment to try to accept that four days ago we were close to arrive in a final. Today if we had scored just before half time maybe the response in the second half would have been different. You need to accept that situations like today happen and look forward to try to improve.  Today we were so competitive despite our circumstances. To be realistic we are doing so well. I think to win the cup like the FA Cup or the Carabao cup you need to have some luck.”

The realistic target is to try and get into the top four. To beat Dortmund in the champions league is going to be so tough. We are going to compete against a team that is doing well in Germany and is on top of the table and they came from one month’s holiday fresh and we are on the opposite side.”