What a sad sight of Roy clinging to 17th place... rather than giving Palace fans a Wembley dream

DESPITE first making his managerial name in Sweden, if there is one person you might expect to uphold the values and traditions of the FA Cup, it is Roy Hodgson.

Instead, a doyen of the English game insulted the grand, old competition and his club’s own fans on a dismal Wednesday night on Merseyside. That is the bottom line.

For Crystal Palace supporters of a certain vintage, the 1990 run to Wembley and the subsequent final against Manchester United will be etched in wonderful memory.

The 4-3 win over Liverpool in the semi-final – Alan Pardew in extra-time (below) – remains one of THE great FA Cup ties.

Talking of Pardew, a later generation of Palace fans can remember his ill-fated touchline jig after Jason Puncheon had put Palace ahead in the 2016 final against United.

In those two years, United pipped Palace – needing a replay in 1990 – but they were heady times.

A couple of years ago, they got to Wembley for a semifinal but were beaten by Chelsea. Still, it was a day out. Hodgson has won a Swedish Cup but has never been close to winning an FA Cup.

There is a good chance this season presented him with the last chance of doing so.

And what did he do? Treated it with disdain just so his best players could get an extra half-hour on their backsides before a bog-standard Premier League match. Just over an hour gone and only a goal down to an Everton side not playing well – their manager Sean Dyche admitted as much – and you take off your best attacking player, Eberechi Eze, along with two other influential players, because you have another match in 63 hours’ time?

Really? Since returning to full fitness, Eze (right) has made six appearances in five weeks, playing less than six hours of football.

And he can’t play another 30 minutes against Everton in an FA Cup tie that was very much alive? He is a 25-year-old in the prime of his athletic career, for goodness sake.

Hodgson admitted the supporters, who had made the 500-mile round trip on a freezing midweek day, had a reason to feel frustrated. But at least they saw a couple of players they don’t normally see much of, he said.

What? This was an FA Cup tie not a pre-season trial match.

Hodgson pointed out Palace created the odd good chance after his marquee players went off. They did, indeed.

And they would have created more and probably taken one or two had Eze stayed on because Everton were not great and got increasingly worse as the game wore on.

Instead, we witnessed the sad sight of a veteran, much-loved manager succumbing to the grim modern phenomenon of a 17th-placed league finish being more treasured than silverware.

Perhaps it is because Hodgson last lifted a trophy 23 years ago when his FC Copenhagen team won the Danish championship.

Or more likely that Hodgson has, for some reason, fallen into line with the contemporary nonsense that prioritises Premier League points over FA Cup dreams.

And let’s face it – whether Eze played 64 or 164 minutes at Goodison Park two-and-a-half days earlier, Palace are probably going to get rolled over at Arsenal early tomorrow afternoon.

But even if they don’t, even if they manage to pull off a famous victory and Eze is the star of the show, it will not excuse what Hodgson did to the grand, old competition.

The FA Cup needs all the eminent, distinguished friends it can get. It is a shame Hodgson proved not to be one of them.