Roy Hodgson refused to use Luka Milivojevic’s sending-off as an excuse for Crystal Palace’s FA Cup exit as he delivered an honest assessment of their under-par performance against Derby County.

Chris Martin’s first half strike gave the Rams a deserved victory at Selhurst Park but the contest’s talking point happened on the hour.

Milivojevic was given his marching orders by referee Michael Oliver who felt his initial yellow card wasn’t adequate for the captains head thrust towards Derby’s Tom Huddlestone after reviewing the incident on the touchline monitor.

Hodgson, who’d already lost the creativity of Max Meyer in the first half, admitted his side weren’t good enough to book their place in the Fourth Round as they offered little goal threat.

“We didn't concede a horrendous amount of chances but it wasn't the performance I was looking for," he said. 

“I didn't think in the first half we were anywhere near as good as we needed to be, in the second half we started an awful lot better and then had a player sent off and were forced to continue with 10 men.

“Of course playing without a man makes that very difficult so we weren't able to breach their defence and get the equaliser that our pressure suggested we might get.”

This Is Local London:

Of the sending off the Eagles boss begrudgingly admitted he felt it was inevitable once the referee was referred to the touchline monitor.

“I've seen it over myself, I think it's a harsh decision,” he said.

“It's one by the letter of the law.

“It's one Tom Huddlestone to his credit, didn't make a meal of it.

“It was just a movement of the head in his direction.

“So to some extent one can feel a bit aggrieved but on the other hand, I'm afraid God is on the side of the referees and the law-makers and there's not much I can do about it.

"I'm not surprised the VAR monitor has been used because that's what people have been talking about.

"I mean the radio, the TV and the written press have been talking about 'why don't the referees use the monitor more?', so I wasn't at all surprised to see him use it."

Palace will be back in league action next Saturday as they welcome Arsenal to SE25.

READ:REPORT: Crystal Palace 0 Derby County 1

READ:PLAYER RATINGS: Crystal Palace 0 Derby County 1