Roy Hodgson bemoans bad luck as Crystal Palace fall to defeat at Newcastle United
Roy Hodgson felt his Crystal Palace side deserved more against Newcastle United at St James' Park
Newcastle United substitute Mikel Merino scores the winning goal against Crystal Palace. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson was left to reflect on small margins as the Eagles lost out against Newcastle United this afternoon (Saturday).
Palace lost out to a header from Mikel Merino in the 86th minute as the Newcastle substitute sealed all three points for the Magpies late on at St James' Park.
But the game's only goal came just a few minutes after Palace almost won it themselves at the other end, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek flashing the ball across the face of goal, with Patrick van Aanholt narrowly missing out on turning the ball home as he slid in at the far post.
What Crystal Palace fans made of the Eagles' narrow loss away at Newcastle United
And Hodgson admitted it was unfortunate for his side to come so close to getting a positive result, only to lose out at the other end.
"I don't think it was a turning point," he said of the missed opportunity.
"I think it was a great opportunity for us to win the game," he said.
Watch our reporter react to Crystal Palace's narrow defeat at Newcastle United
"He has the shot and we couldn't quite turn it in, and that would have been nice to score and definitely, we think give us a positive result, even if they had equalised.
Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur battles for the ball with Javi Manquillo of Newcastle United. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
"But of course at 0-0 anything can happen. And it did for them from a corner kick. Unfortunately looking at the replay, it looks like [James] McArthur's header cannons into [Mikel] Merino and whizzes past our goalkeeper, so that is another piece of bad luck for us."