Roy Hodgson blasts Eddie Howe over allegations of Wilfried Zaha diving to win Crystal Palace penalties

Zaha won two penalties in the game between Palace and Bournemouth last weekend

Zaha won two penalties against Bournemouth (Getty Images)

Roy Hodgson hit out at Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe for suggesting Wilfried Zaha dived to win two penalties during their 2-2 draw last weekend.

The Crystal Palace boss raised question marks over both spot-kicks the Palace no.11 earned in the eventful match, with Christian Benteke now infamously missing the second in stoppage time to throw away two precious points.

After Ivory Coast international Zaha was again inspirational in helping inspire the Eagles to their first away win of the season during a superb 3-0 victory at Leicester - scoring the second goal of the game, his fourth in 10 - Hodgson defended him and criticised Howe.

“I don't think it's incumbent upon other managers to make comments about other team's players,” Hodgson said. “I don't do that. I don't warn referees about players in opposing teams. I think the referee should be allowed to make their own decisions about that and up to now no referee has admonished Wilf Zaha for diving and I don't understand why managers should be coming out suggesting [that].

“I certainly don't encourage diving. I'm not interested in penalties being given to my team for players diving because I know how hurtful it is when you get one given against you for diving. I've suffered that, I've lost points on that and I try to at least be fairly consistent that if I moan about someone who has done it and it cost us a game and I'm disappointed about it then I don't want to profit by it either. We don't do it.”

Everton’s Oumar Niasse became the first ever Premier League player to be retrospectively punished for diving after winning a penalty at Selhurst a month ago, an incident still fresh in Hodgson's mind. He doesn't believe Zaha deserves similar action or to have a reputation for going down too easily.

“He doesn't dive,” Hodgson said. “In fact, after people unbalance him he actually works very hard - perhaps harder than most - to stay on his feet. He seems to stumble through again. He takes a lot of punishment because he really is very, very brave and he's very strong and he doesn't give balls up, even if it is nudged away from him a yard or two he's after it again and he gets another foot to it.

“Some of the fouls are not vicious fouls they're just people going for a ball which is no longer there because he has nudged it past them. He was very good [at Leicester], he's been good in all the games.”

Benteke made up for that late penalty miss against Bournemouth a week ago by opening the scoring - and his account for the season finally - at the King Power Stadium, flicking in Andros Townsend's cross after 18 minutes. He also set up Zaha for the second just before the break and has already been forgiven by his team-mates for last weekend's indiscretions.

“He's always been forgiven,” said Hodgson. “These things happen in football. Everybody connected with the club was a bit annoyed because he wasn't the nominated penalty taker but we've got the points today and he's been a major factor in that so I'm sure he didn't enjoy his Saturday night after the Bournemouth game, I really hope he's going to enjoy his Saturday night tonight.”

Benteke won't get the chance to build on that goal next Saturday at bottom-placed Swansea after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season at the King Power, leaving Hodgson with no recognised strikers again - having lost the Belgian for eight weeks with a knee injury earlier in the season. Bakary Sako's two goals of the bench this week will offer some solace, however.

“We've not been blessed with luck in that respect; what we've done so far we've had to scrap for,” added Hodgson. “I suppose you can argue that scoring late goals is lucky but I'm not certain I totally agree with that because our late goals were a product of determination and hard work and they were actually good goals.

“Apart from that we've not really been blessed with a lot of luck coming our way, certainly with Benteke's suspension, but the boys have covered for it before and we'll have to cover for it again at Swansea which will be a very tough game."