“I’m very happy and proud” – Hodgson following Sheffield United win | OneFootball

Roy Hodgson spoke to the media following his side’s 1-0 win at Ashton Gate over Sheffield United this afternoon. The 78-year-old opened by admitting he was “very happy and proud” of the performance and result before adding “any win asks a lot of a team…I thought we stood up to the challenge very well. In terms of the beautiful game, I enjoyed periods of the first half more than I did the second, but I’m more proud of the second half.”

The Bristol City boss went on to admit that whilst he hasn’t had much time to work on things with the players since his appointment little over a week ago, he believes his side have “responded way beyond expectations and what I could demand of them.” He then added that his two centre-halves, Noah Eile and Neto Borges, were outstanding today and “deserve more credit than they’ve been given, they’ve had two very tough games, and they’ve handled it brilliantly.” The Robins’ goalkeeper, Radek Vítek, also put in a stellar performance this afternoon, with Hodgson saying “he was very very good, we couldn’t stop them getting the balls into the box as much as they did, we were trying to, but [Andre] Brooks is a hell of a talented player and you’re also dealing with [Patrick] Bamford who is a top player. One of our centre-backs is a young guy who’s come from America, and the other is a left-back, but he didn’t look like it today.”

City skipper Jason Knight featured heavily on the right side of defence today, which isn’t his typical area of operation, Hodgson spoke on this saying “he chose it, of course we lost our right-back and it could have been [Mark] Sykes playing there with Jason in front of him but he said to me ‘I think I should play right-back, I think Mark Sykes is better playing further forward’ and that suited me too, because having his ability and his experience at the back was really good for me.”

The manager also provided an update on Ross McCrorie, who was substituted through injury at half-time during Friday’s win over Charlton. “The hope is that he won’t be long and that he’ll be back and available for the QPR game. He tried very hard to be fit for this one, but the stud wound is just below the knee, and it’s hard for him to bend the knee at the moment; that has to improve.”

Hodgson has now been in charge of the club for ten days, and spoke on how he’s found his return to Bristol and management as a whole, “Bristol’s a lovely place, I knew that anyway…my wife’s down here, which I think it wouldn’t have been possible for me to do five weeks in a job like this totally on my own, it’s been very wearing on me I’ve got to say. I was sold the job very cleverly by Richard [Scudamore] and Charlie [Boss], as if it would just be a breeze and I’d come down and just show my face, it hasn’t been like that at all. I enjoy the training, and I enjoy some parts of the game, when we play well, but there’s too much time at the end where I’m telling myself to calm down and not get too excited, but I get sucked into the old mould, and I’m kicking every ball and looking up at the clock every two minutes.”