“I wouldn’t put it down to particular moments – it’s too facile to do that,” Hodgson said in his pre-match press conference. “That is the classic pundits or commentators one: ‘There is a goal off the training field’. Well, how do they know? How many training sessions do they see, these commentators?
“But quite often they will say that about set-pieces. Quite often set-pieces might just be that someone has hit a wonderful ball in and someone gets his head to it and sticks it in the back of the net.
“But in general terms we will look back on a lot of good work we have done together. There has been a team behind the team. We have worked very conscientiously and methodically with regard to the principles we want to instil in the team, the attitude we want and the whole way the players approach their jobs and the match at the weekend.”
Hodgson has been delighted with his players’ commitment since returning to south London, despite taking over so close to the end of the season.
“I will look back on this time working here with this group of players with a lot of satisfaction in the end, and what it has done is it has given us a lot of good moments in games when we have played well and got reward for playing well,” he explains.
“That’s the thing you are always concerned about as a coach. Can you get the team playing well and doing the right things, defending as you want to defend and attacking as you want the team to attack, but then to get any rewards from it you have to win.
“The good attacking movement has to finish with a goal, not a shot which hits the crossbar or is saved by the goalkeeper or goes behind, because they get forgotten. The move will only be discussed or analysed or dissected by the pundits at the end of he game if the ball has gone in the back of the net.
