Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HOWE MUCH LONGER?
This was a shambles too far for Hodgson - now Palace may opt to appoint Eddie CRYSTAL PALACE BURNLEY
0 310, Lowton 47
THE clock is ticking on Roy Hodgson’s time in charge of Crystal Palace.
The 73-year-old has been in football management since taking over at Halmstad in Sweden in 1976.
He has been in the Palace hot-seat for nearly three and a half years but this abject performance has placed the former England manager’s position under real threat.
Under Hodgson, whose contract runs out at the end of this season, Palace have stayed largely free of relegation dogfights. But after a performance that had him shaking his head on the touchline, it’s hard to see him in control when next season begins.
For a coach whose tactics are hardly cavalier, Palace’s defensive record is shocking – only West Brom have conceded more Premier League goals this season.
Indeed there is a possibility that he could leave before the end of this season if Palace give another performance like this against bitter rivals Brighton next Monday.
Palace’s American owners Josh Harris and David Blitzer have up until now been happy with Hodgson. He has guided Eagles to finishes of 11th, 12th and, last year, 14th. Even now they lie 13th, 14 points clear of the drop zone. But there was something about this Palace defeat that spoke of a need for change.
Former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe (left) is the favourite to take over, whether at the end of the campaign or sooner if things deteriorate, but chairman Steve Parish also likes Burnley boss Sean Dyche - the man who masterminded this latest setback. Frank Lampard is another possibility. The dilemma for Parish is that sacking Hodgson now might unsettle Palace enough to risk a relegation fight.
Those in Hodgson’s camp say he has warned the board that an ageing squad needs strengthening. Twelve players and staff are out of contract at the end of this season. And he also has seven players out injured.
Though he is tired of repeating that they are not a one-man team, Palace have lost 18 of the last 20 games when Wilfried Zaha has been absent – and failed to score in 16.
Alarm bells must surely be ringing after this defeat.
That famed Hodgson ability to organise a team has evaporated. Too many of his players went missing.
When Patrick van Aanholt and Scott Dann got in each other’s way trying to clear Erik Pieters’ cross after five minutes, Johann Gudmundsson had acres of space to score.
Five minutes later, no Palace defenders were in sight as Jay Rodriguez nodded in a Dwight Mcneil corner.
Three minutes after halftime Rodriguez chipped the ball across to Matt Lowton, who volleyed home superbly. In reality, the game had long been over. Maybe like Hodgson’s reign.
TASTE GLORY Buendia celebrates after making it 3-1 to the Canaries (right)
NORWICH
Cantwell 15, Pukki 44, 80 pen, STOKE
Powell 61
4 Buendia 64 1 EMI BUENDIA has promised to be on his best behaviour for the rest of the season.
That will be crucial to Norwich’s promotion hopes as the Argentinian is certainly their best player.
Teemu Pukki, the 30-goal hero of the 2018-19 title-winning side, scored twice against Stoke, and now has 13 for the season.
But he could not have done it without Buendia, who set him up for a tap-in and won him a penalty as well as firing home a fine strike himself.
It is no secret Norwich struggle without their playmaker, as was proved when the 24-year-old was sent off against Middlesbrough at the end of January.
Daniel Farke’s side failed to score against Millwall and were beaten by promotion rivals Swansea while Buendia served a two-game ban. It was the second time he had been sent off this term, both reds for reckless challenges while already on a yellow.
But the man linked with a £40million switch to Arsenal, who will surely be back in the Premier League next season in one shirt or another, insisted he had learned his lesson.
He said: “It was the second ‘situation’ during the season, I had to learn again about two little mistakes.
“Now I am just focusing on the future and not committing the same mistakes.
“It was quite a risk, both those yellow cards. But, yes, I think I learned about these and now I try to be calm one v one.
“I’ll keep going sharp into each duel, to win the duel. But I’ll try to be calm in these little details, to be smart.”
Todd Cantwell got the Canaries off to a flyer with a fine 15th-minute strike after Mario Vrancic back-heeled the ball into his path.
Buendia charged down Morgan Fox’s clearance to set up Pukki just before the break but Dimitris Giannoulis’ crazy square ball across his own box let Nick Powell in for a Stoke lifeline on the hour.
Buendia made sure of a first win
Jeremy Simpson in five games with a smart finish from the Greek’s pullback and then tricked Joe Allen into conceding the penalty for Pukki.
That added up to an 11th game without a win for the Potters, who had Nathan Collins carried off with a suspected broken foot after he landed heavily in stoppage time.
Stoke are in no danger of relegation but boss Michael O’neill knows their play-off hopes are diminishing.
He said: “We just have to get back to winning games. We’re in a bad run. We’re on a difficult run where we’re being tested.
“For too long we’ve maybe said that we’ve played well enough in games and not taken what we felt we deserved. This time, we got what we deserved.”
NORWICH CITY: Krul 6, Aarons 7, Hanley 7, Gibson 7, Giannoulis 5, Skipp 6 (Sorensen 82), Mclean 6, Buendia 8 (Dowell 85), Vrancic 6 (Rupp 71, 5), Cantwell 7 (Hernandez 82), Pukki 6 (Idah 85)
STOKE CITY: Gunn 7, Souttar 6, Chester 7, Collins 7, Clucas 6 (Cousins 82), Mikel 6 (Mcclean 62, 6), Allen 6 (Thompson 82), Fox 6, Clarke 6 (Matondo 46, 5), Powell 6, Fletcher 6 (Vokes 71, 5)
MOTM EMI BUENDIA (NORWICH)
MILLWALL Smith 76, Bennett 85
STEVE JUDGE
GARY ROWETT hopes Mason Bennett’s winner is the start of a strong end to the season for both player and club.
Bennett (celebrating with coach Dave Carolan, above) came off the Millwall bench to head home only his second goal of the campaign from Scott Malone’s 85th-minute deflected cross.
It delivered a 12th point in six unbeaten games for the Lions and resulted in Rowett demanding more goals of his summer signing from Derby and a late charge at the play-offs.
Rowett said: “Mason is a talented player. He is the type I would always expect more of, as I think he is capable of it.
“It is nice for him to come up with a goal. He can score different types of goals and I think he can add more goals to his game.
“We finished eighth last season and were disappointed to miss out on the play-offs.
“Millwall are a club that typically finish the second half of the season stronger than the first half, and I feel we will get better as the season goes on.”
The Lions inflicted a second home defeat in three days on fifth-placed Reading after gifting Alfa Semedo a bizarre
17th-minute opener.
Shaun Williams turned into the midfielder, whose tackle/shot flew past Millwall keeper Bart Bialkowski from 36 yards.
Sub Matt Smith levelled on 76 minutes after Tom Bradshaw’s scuffed effort fell at his feet.
Royals boss Veljko Paunovic said: “We have to bounce back immediately. This is an important moment in the season for us.”
READING: Rafael 6, Holmes 6 (Yiadom 76), Morrison 7, Mcintyre 7, Gibson 6 (Baldock 87), Rinomhota 7, Laurent 7 (Richards 87), Olise 8, Semedo 7, Ejaria 7, Joao 7
MILLWALL: Bialkowski 7, Cooper 6, Evans 6, Hutchinson 6, Romeo 6, Woods 6 (Mitchell 90), Thompson 6 (Smith 63, 6), Williams 5 (J Wallace 46, 6), Malone 7, Zohore 6
(Bradshaw 71, 7), Bodvarsson 5 (Bennett 46, 7)