BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT SELHURST PARK

ROY HODGSON expressed his sadness that Wilfried Zaha committed to play for Ivory Coast rather than for England. He was speaking after Zaha’s two-goal match winning performance in Crystal Palace’s 3-2 win against Brighton.  He said: “I feel I am responsible because I gave him his debut for England and we did not follow it up. I am sure a lot of England managers that follow me will say what a pity that this player chose the Ivory Coast rather than England. To be honest I think he was happy to play for them as he was just seduced by the Ivory Coast. Part of the seduction was that he was not playing a lot of games for England. At the moment Wilf’s season has been superb and last season towards the end too. He is not the Zaha who was at Manchester United and unfortunately we do not have a crystal ball. It is very important that he stays fit. We cannot ask for anymore than what he is giving us at the moment.’

Hodgson believes that Zaha could still go up to the next level in terms of performances and he said: “His dribbling ability and ability on the ball has been good. What steps can he take to be recognised like Hazard and Sanchez? With his qualities there is no reason why he cannot take another step and become even better.  

Hodgson however still rates Rueben Loftus-Cheek’s chances of making the England squad for the World Cup Russia this summer. He said:” I think Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s performance for 80 minutes was fantastic despite being out for three months. He still has a chance of playing for England at the World Cup. We had to take him off because he started to cramp.

A disappointed Brighton Manager Chris Hughton said: “We had two of the best chances of the game in the second half. A mad period in the first half where we concede two goals hurt us. I thought we showed great spirit in the second half and could have got a point from it but the first half cost us.  It is a difficult period for us at the moment but there is enough in our game that gives us confidence that we can get results. We will continue to give our best. What we produced was a good second half today but the damage had been done by then. “