Hodgson showers praise on Wickham after FA Cup win
Crystal Palace pulled off a major upset in the FA Cup as the Eagles put an end to Tottenham‘s hopes with a 2-0 victory over the north Londoners at Selhurst Park on Sunday, thanks to goals from Conor Wickham and Andros Townsend.
Conor Wickham marked his return from long-term injury obscurity as the 25-year-old scored his first goal in 799 days for Crystal Palace before Townsend converted from the spot ten minutes before halftime.
And Roy Hodgson showered praise on Wickham, saying that the goal would do a world of good to his confidence but he also fired a warning that there is still a lot more work to come for the forward.
“Incredible isn’t it, it is a credit to him,” Hodgson said of his return.
“I thought today was a good news day for Crystal Palace with both him and Julian Speroni – he broke the record for clean sheets – for Connor to have to fight his way back to starting a game after all that time and to crown it with a goal, another piece of good news for the club.”
“But if you suddenly believe ‘well that is it now, it is going to be just like it was four or five years ago when I was in my prime’, I think that would be too much to ask.
“He’s got to keep training, keep himself fit enough to get out to all the training sessions which is something he’s been doing now for the last five or six and in my previous year at the club he never had that spell of training every day.
“The reason he is playing now and playing from the start is because he’s training. It is the reason also Christian Benteke, who has been doing it for the last two or three weeks can give us the 15 minutes he gave.”
