Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has claimed that winger Wilfried Zaha is "unfairly treated" by others.
Zaha was booked for simulation after going down in the box in Palace's goalless draw at Watford on Saturday, after having two penalty claims waved away by referee Chris Kavanagh.
Replays suggest that the winger's latter penalty shout was valid, and Hodgson is adamant that the player's reputation went against him on the day.
"Well, we can't do anything about [Zaha's reputation] unfortunately," Hodgson told reporters.
"I know Zaha, having worked with him for basically the whole of this season. I know that every time he gets the ball in the penalty area, he's trying to beat opponents - he's trying to score a goal more than anything else. I think he is being unfairly treated. But the fact is, reputations are given to you from people outside of your control. Other managers sometimes come in with opinions and that's been picked up by the mass media - then it gets blown up.
"I can assure people, if they've got any faith in my judgement and ability to see football relatively calmly, he never looks to dive in the penalty area - never - because he wants to score goals, there's no doubt about that. He will get unbalanced. I thought in the first half the referee made the right decision when he almost got through but was unbalanced and went down. He didn't go for the penalty. He was just unbalanced. The referee dealt with that very well. The second one, when people see it they will have their opinions, but they will have to forgive me for thinking that it was a penalty."
Saturday's result at Vicarage Road moves Crystal Palace up to 15th in the Premier League table, while the Hornets remain in 12th position.
Matthew Jones
