Roy of the Rovers still in limelight

Roy Hodgson may have experienced just a twinge of regret yesterday as he viewed from afar the Ronaldo-reinforced Internazionale. The feeling would surely have been fleeting. Blackburn Rovers' new manager has at least another fortnight to bask in an English job startlingly well done.

Several Blackburn players likened Hodgson's immediate impact at Ewood Park to a new broom. Yet other Englishmen before him, returning imbued with Serie A ideas, have hardly swept all before them. So far, however, Hodgson's Italian accompaniments are working.

Even before this ultimately comfortable victory at Selhurst Park, much has been made of the fish and pasta diet, and extra training sessions, prescribed in East Lancashire. Hodgson has also brought in an Italian fitness coach with the accent on stretching exercises. The benefits may be psychological, too, as Tim Flowers playfully suggested.

Is this the recipe for success, the goalkeeper was asked? "Maybe it's all in the head," he replied.

A triumph of Hodgson's generalship, it seems, but no one should overlook the troops on the ground, who impressively stormed the Premiership heights.

At Selhurst Park, Blackburn survived the absence of Jason Wilcox and the disturbing departure of their captain and defensive warrior Colin Hendry early in the second half. Hendry was knocked unconscious for two and a half minutes in an accidental penalty area collision and, after lying motionless for a worryingly long time, left the field strapped to a stretcher and with a neck brace applied.

After checks at the local hospital, he travelled back on the team coach after suffering "some concussion and a bit of a head injury". Hendry's injury - and the eight minute interruption it forced - destabilised Blackburn's second-half performance.

But Palace, increasingly pumping long balls forward, were too erratic to punish Hodgson's team beyond the Bruce Dyer header shortly before the collision.

But most times the home side had enough unforced errors to make even a park tennis player blush.

First-time touches by Martin Dahlin and Lars Bohinen deserved good fortune that saw Kevin Gallacher first blocked by Kevin Miller's challenge but then exploit the ricochet into space with the goalkeeper grounded. That was as untidy as Chris Sutton's sixth goal of the season was neat: an instant 20-yard half-volley into the far corner after Marc Edworthy mistimed his header.