Roy Hodgson: Crystal Palace missed Christian Benteke up front

Roy Hodgson admits his Crystal Palace side missed the influence of Christian Benteke up front as they recorded no shots on target in the 1-0 loss at Newcastle.

Mikel Merino's late header handed Newcastle all three points at St James' Park, despite Palace dominating for large parts of the game.

However, none of Palace's 10 attempts tested Rob Elliot, meaning the Premier League's basement club remain without a point or goal on the road this season.

Hodgson was not deterred by the sorry statistic, opting to praise the efforts of Wilfried Zaha and Andros Townsend in the absence of Benteke, who is out until November with a knee injury.

"I don't know about no shots on target," Hodgson told Sky Sports. "[Ruben] Loftus-Cheek's drive across the box was almost turned in at the far post.

"It might not have been a shot on target but if I was in the opposing dugout I would have been very concerned about that. Some shots on target can just be catching practice.

"But we are missing Christian Benteke of course, who is a classic centre-forward and a goalscorer. Hopefully it won't be too long before he comes back and maybe that will help us.

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"I must say that Zaha and Townsend did a sterling job up front, they might not have scored but they came pretty close on a number of occasions."

Palace's defeat at Newcastle came after a surprise 2-1 victory over champions Chelsea, which gave the Eagles their first points of the season.

The visiting fans were hoping to see their side carry that momentum up to Newcastle, but it proved to be a frustrating afternoon for the club, who are now five points from safety after just nine games.

Given the fortuitous manner of Merino's winner - which ricocheted off his head following James McArthur's header - Hodgson hopes their recent efforts will offer Palace fans cause for optimism.

"The defending positions were fine. We got to the ball first but unfortunately the header hits Merino and ricochets at some speed past the goalkeeper," Hodgson added.

"Sometimes in football you are unfortunate, luck does play a part and I don't think we had any today.

"The last two weeks we have at least put in good performances, so it gives us optimism that we will get results in the future.

"They saw us play well last week. If they're fair-minded they'll say they saw us play well this week. They'll be optimistic that if we continue playing this way, the future does look a lot brighter.

"Days like today are a body blow when you do well enough to get something from the game. But football does that but we have to take those blows and learn from them."