GENERATION
confessed. Led by Wilfried Zaha, who has matured and definitely instilled some mental toughness to his game after failing to impress during an unhappy stay at Manchester United, Palace should have collected a full set of points.
Hodgson said: “Could we have got more? That is the constant lament.
“At least we got something and on another day, if fate had been kinder and we had been a bit more clinical, we could have won.”
If only Patrick van Aanholt had finished off a wonderful flowing move ■ Man Utd failed to score in a top-flight home meeting with Crystal Palace for the first time since October 1970 (0-1). which had begun just outside their own area involving the impressive Max Meyer, and inevitably Zaha, which sliced through United with consummate ease in the 24th minute.
But the Dutchman, with the goal at his mercy, sliced wide instead of placing the seal on a scintillating passage of play.
If only Andros Townsend had finished off his lacerating individual run in the 73rd minute with a clinical finish instead of firing across the goal with only David de Gea in his path. Mourinho went on a ■ Palace picked up their first point in a league game here since winning 2-1 in December 1989 – this draw ended a run of 11 mercy dash to Belgium last week at the invitation of national manager Roberto Martinez to try and ease Romelu Lukaku out of his lethargy.
He could have saved the airfare for all the difference it made.
It’s now 11 games without a goal for the striker, although a correct linesman’s flag cut short his celebrations after prodding in from close range after Wayne Hennessey had pushed out an Ashley Young effort.
The Wales keeper also had to scramble a header from Lukaku around the post with eight minutes to go as United desperately attempted to up the tempo.
That would have been a travesty for Palace who also saw the referee’s assistant chalk off a header from Cheikhou Kouyate.
Once again it proved to be an inauspicious afternoon for Paul Pogba who was hooked after 67 minutes.
At the final whistle you could have excused Mourinho for shouting that well-worn phrase, ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!’. successive defeats away against Manchester United. ■ This was United’s first home PL clean sheet of the season.