Hodgson hails Jordan Ayew for maiden Crystal Palace goal

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson is excited to see Jordan Ayew off the mark with his first goal for the club in Wednesday's Premier League victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.

After drawing blank in the first half of the season, the summer signing began 2019 in style with the opener as The Eagles registered a 2-0 away win at Molineux Stadium.

He transferred from Swansea City on loan in August, and the midweek fixture took his games tally in the league to 13 involving nine starts.

"When you are a forward, you do need goals, and he [Ayew] has had to wait for that," Hodgson said at the post-match conference.

"If anyone deserved that goal tonight, it was him. He worked hard and defended well.

"He has done a lot of good work, and he did a lot of good work tonight before the goal.

"I thought his defending and his stretching of the defence, and his hold up play when we got the ball up to him, all of those things were good."

Ayew, an unused substitute for Palace's last two games, could not have waited any longer for his maiden goal considering the club's ambition to sign a new centre-forward owing to the poor form of their current options.

"To be fair, we have had difficult games. The games against Manchester City and Chelsea, you sometimes modify your line-up, or system at times," Hodgson added.

"We stick to the same principles, but we are lucky enough to have that flexibility to sometimes play with one, two or three up front, like we did today.

"Occasionally, he [Ayew] gets sacrificed in those moments when I decide it will be Wilf [Wilfred Zaha] and Andros [Townsend] up the front, but it was good to bring him back in the team tonight and it was good to see Wilf and Andros do so well in the wide positions."

To shed light on Palace's current centre-forward predicament, injured Belgium centre-forward Christian Benteke, Norway forward Alexander Sorloth and Englishman Connor Wickham are all yet to score a Premier League goal this season.