Twitter laughs as Roy Hodgson fails to pluck one out of the sky during Crystal Palace’s win

Twitter made light fun of Roy Hodgson after he showed off his skills on the ball during Crystal Palace’s thrilling 4-3 win over London rivals West Ham on Saturday.

Midway through the first half, a wayward kick brought the ball to the side of the pitch, and the 75-year-old Palace boss stuck out his foot to deal with it, although he failed to pluck it from the sky, instead sending it spinning into open space.

He was wearing a suit and tie on the sidelines, not a tracksuit, which may have been a hindrance in his attempts to bring down the ball – and it sent social media into a frenzy.

BT Sport, who were showing the Saturday lunchtime kick-off live, shared a clip of Hodgson’s ball skills with the caption: ‘Not the greatest of touches, Roy!’ and a laughing crying emoji.

Roy Hodgson attempted to bring down a wayward ball during Crystal Palace’s win on Saturday

BT Sport claimed that the Crystal Palace boss showed ‘not the greatest of touches’ during play

But others defended the Crystal Palace boss, possibly with their tongue-in-cheek. One responded to BT stating: ‘What you on about, he played it perfectly into space’. 

One said the ex-England boss was ‘channeling’ Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku during the moment, which happened with his team 2-1 up in the match despite initially falling behind. 

Another fan went further still, hailing Hodgson to have a ‘Golden Touch’, while another openly admitted that the 75-year-old’s ball control was ‘still better than mine’. 

Several fans were quick to pledge their support to Hodgson for his ball skills against West Ham

While one supporter unfairly added five years by rounding the former England manager’s age up to the nearest decade, they said it was ‘pretty awesome for someone that’s almost 80 tbh’. 

Another could only imagine the memes which would have resulted from a finer touch  usually reserved for social media clips. ‘Wish he brought that down man’, one fan mused, ‘the content would have been outrageous’.

Since the start of April, Palace have won four of their six league fixtures, drawing another and losing just once with Tuesday’s 2-0 defeat on the road at Wolves. 

Fans hailed the ex-England boss’s ‘awesome’ control, but wish he’d brought the ball down

Saturday’s win over struggling West Ham moved Crystal Palace to 11th place in the Premier League table.

It took them above Chelsea, albeit having played two additional games in comparison to Frank Lampard’s Blues, who are not in action until Tuesday.

Crystal Palace’s next match is also a London derby, this time an away trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Saturday.