Roy Hodgson defended his squad selection after a disappointing loss to Colchester.

Crystal Palace were hoping to build on their massive 2-1 win at Old Trafford against Manchester United at the weekend.

But Hodsgon made several changes to his starting lineup, giving the likes of James McCarthy and Sam Woods their first starts of the season.

During the post-match press conference, Hodgson said: "Very true [it was a come down from Saturday]. I believe the team we put out tonight would've been capable of winning the game.

"It was important for some players to show what they can do; we had injuries to Ward and Schlupp anyway, and one or two players coming back from injury – like Schlupp – that we didn't really want to take a chance on.

"But having said all of that, the starting line-up today, is a starting line-up in my opinion was going to be capable of winning the game and they didn't because we didn't play well enough and Colchester played very well."