Roy Hodgson hits back at booing Crystal Palace supporters and explains early Eze sub

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has hit back at supporters who booed him for taking off star man Eberechi Eze against Everton with his side 1-0 down and 25 minutes left on the clock.

The Eagles were knocked out of the FA Cup by the Toffees at Goodison Park in the third-round replay on Wednesday night. There was little to separate the teams except a wonderful Andre Gomes free-kick just before half-time for the home side.

The London outfit were still in the game in the final half an hour, which is why Crystal Palace fans were left surprised to see gamechanger Eze hooked off by the veteran manager. Brazilian midfielder Matheus França, who is yet to score his first goal for the club since from Flamengo last summer, came on in place of the 25-year-old in the 64th minute.

As the change happened, travelling supporters in the away end at Goodison Park booed Hodgson and chanted 'you don't know what you're doing'. Unsurprisingly, that moment was one of the first questions put to the Crystal Palace boss after the match.

While Hodgson showed recognition of fan frustration, he also suggested that critical supporters weren't thinking about the side's upcoming matches. As reported by The Athletic, the manager said: "I appreciate for the fans it’s a long way to come and we appreciate their support. I’d have been disappointed to see Eze go off as he's one of our best players.

"I also would be extremely disappointed as a fan if he’d have played another 30-35 mins and got injured in the process, or put himself in a situation where he can't go out on the field against Arsenal - that would have been extra disappointing. Even without him, I thought we did enough to cause Everton problems and create goal chances. But once again we can only blame ourselves we didn’t take them.

"We've got a lot of players here who haven't had a chance to show what they can do. We keep wanting to see what Franca, Ahamada and Ozoh can do. The chances are with the team we’ve got at the moment their chances in the Premier League might still be few and far between.

"It was good at least to see these players and to know that our judgement that we can trust them and if we need them to go on the field of play and do a good job for us is the right judgement. They've gone on tonight and I wouldn't say we were suddenly much worse."