Crystal Palace began life under new manager Roy Hodgson with a loss as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat against Southampton in their Premier League encounter at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon.
Steven Davis’ goal in the sixth minute was enough to give the visitors the victory and inflict a fifth defeat in five on the Eagles.
The result also leaves them without a goal in 2017-18, meaning they have taken the longest of any top-flight team in England to score a goal at the start of a season since Newcastle United in 2005-06.
Hodgson was greeted with huge applause prior to kick-off, the former England boss having replaced Frank de Boer on a two-year deal this week, but the optimism quickly faded when Davis pounced on a rebound to open the scoring.
Palace, as they did in last week’s loss to Burnley, enjoyed plenty of possession and created good chances to equalise, but were thwarted by two good saves from goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
The home side applied the pressure in the second half, but Mauricio Pellegrino’s side were largely untroubled late on as they recorded their second win of the season and left Palace rooted to the bottom of the table.
After Selhurst Park gave Hodgson a rapturous welcome ahead of kick-off, the home fans fell silent when Saints took the lead.
The ball was worked to Dusan Tadic inside the box, and when his drive across goal was parried by Wayne Hennessey, Davis was on hand to side-foot the rebound home from 12 yards.
Saints unsurprisingly looked the more confident, but Palace nearly equalised twice before the half-hour mark, Christian Benteke denied by a point-blank block by Forster, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek firing just wide of the left-hand post.
Andros Townsend flashed a half-volley narrowly over in first-half injury time. Palace stepped up the pressure after the break, with Forster making a fine save to deny Jason Puncheon after a Loftus-Cheek cross flew across the box.
Torrential rain began to fall as Palace committed more men forward, allowing Southampton the chance to exploit the slick surface on the counter-attack through Shane Long and Nathan Redmond.
Palace continued to press, but belief seemed to ebb away from the players and the stands as Saints began to repel their attacks with relative ease, although Joel Ward did test Forster again with a header from a Yohan Cabaye cross.
The result means Palace have won only two of their last 17 meetings with Saints, and could be six points adrift of safety if Leicester City beat Huddersfield Town later on Saturday.
Photo: Premier League website
-This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za
