Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson was left disappointed with their 2-0 defeat to Manchester City.

Hodgson felt they were in the game before goals struck by Sergio Aguero and Ferran Torres.

He said, "I'm a bit sad. I thought at half-time we gave ourselves a chance. I think if we could have just kept that going, who knows? Maybe we could have got a lucky bounce and scored a goal. We weren't without opportunities ourselves, but when the first goal is immediately followed by the second, you're staring down the barrel of a gun.

"I can't ask any more of the team and the players. All I can do is congratulate Man City. They made a lot of changes, but they've got such a good squad – they showed just how good their squad is.

"Tactically I don't think I can fault the players too much, far from it. You get undone with teams like Manchester City. With their technical ability and athleticism, they're always making runs in behind. Of course it's very difficult to keep the ball long enough to ask enough questions.

"We have a very good group of players. You can never really accuse them of lacking heart for the fight or not giving their best. Some days they don't play their best, but that's football. We couldn't have played much better for 60 minutes, but after the two goals we had to accept we're not good enough to score three goals against them.

"We're fighting still. We'd like some more points. We showed today we're not going to be out of any race we have to take part in between now and the end of the season. We just have to lick our wounds."

On his future, Hodgson hopes it isn't affecting the players: "We've now got five games – one's away to Liverpool but the others are against teams who aren't really in the top half. The test will come if there is uncertainty. And if that uncertainty is having an effect on players we will see it in the next five games."