Roy Hodgson rued his side's missed chances in his post-match press conference following the Eagles' 1-0 defeat away at Newcastle United.
Reviewing how he saw the 90 minutes unfold, Hodgson said: "I was rather hoping we would win it. Our second-half performance followed on from the first-half, I thought we had a lot of the ball and created a lot of chances but you’ve got to take your chances and we didn’t.
"As a result of course, as the game goes on, there’s always that risk that a cross will come in, Andy [Carroll] will outjump whoever is marking him and the ball will fall very kindly to another one of their players.