Roy Hodgson insisted that the issue between himself and Sam Allardyce has been completely resolved, after watching his Crystal Palace side slump to a 3-1 defeat at Goodison Park. 

The Londoners conceded twice in the first ten minutes of the second-half and failed to recover, getting their only goal through a Luka Milivojevic penalty after Tom Davies had already made it 3-0 to Everton.

Allardyce issue dealt with

However, much of the focus both pre-match and post was regarding the relationship between Hodgson and opposite number Allardyce, regarding the Everton manager not having apologised for openly mocking Hodgson in a video filmed in 2016.

That issue is all sorted now, according to Hodgson.

"Sam called me on Thursday," the Palace boss explained.

"He apologised to me which I was happy to accept and as far as I'm concerned that matter is long into the distant past and I have nothing else to say on the subject."

Boss not disappointed with performance

Speaking about the game itself, Hodgson was surprisingly upbeat about Palace's performance, telling the assembled media that he was in no way disappointed with how his side played, despite losing 3-1.

"No," said Hodgson when asked if he was left disappointed.

"The first half we did very well, in the second-half we went two goals down fairly early on but I thought we stayed in the game and kept working hard, playing hard, so I'm not disappointed in them at all.

I'm sad we didn't get a result, I thought at half-time we could but it's all about goals and Everton got them.

"I thought we kept playing and trying to come back, some of the football in that period [at 2-0] was more than acceptable but didn't produce a goal, and then the third goal put the game beyond our reach."

​One bright-spot for Palace was the debut performance of Alexander Sorloth, the new number nine playing in an unnatural left-wing position but causing nuisance to the Everton defence, nearly adding a goal in the second-half. 

"I thought he did well on his debut, he hasn't played in two months," said Hodgson.

"I was quite surprised he lasted the pace of the game, I was quite impressed with his determination and aggression."