Roy Hodgson has said he was pleased with Watford's performance, despite the fact they were beaten 1-0 at Crystal Palace, confirming their relegation to the Championship.

During the 90 minutes, the Hornets managed only one shot on target and ended up on the wrong side of the scoreline, with Wilfried Zaha converting the deciding strike from the penalty spot.

However, the manager said he was pleased with how his side contained the threat of Palace and suggested that things could have been much worse, especially after Hassane Kamara was sent off with 20 minutes to go.

"It was a tough week, there's no doubt about that," said Hodgson, acknowledging last weekend's 2-1 collapse at home to Burnley that all-but sealed their demotion, before Palace hammered the final nail into their coffin.

"And that's why today's performance is a performance that really satisfied me because the week has been a very tough one, and to come here to Crystal Palace, with the form they're in...we could so easily have collapsed and suffered a serious defeat.

"As it is we lost 1-0 with 10 men and to a penalty which we contest should never been given."

With three Premier League matches left to play before they think about starting life as a Championship club, Hodgson said Watford needed to show belief in themselves.

"We're going to try to do what we did today," he continued. "Basically, we're going to go out there, we're going to try and believe in ourselves. We're going to prepare the game so we know what Everton are going to come with and what we've got to do to keep them out, as well as what we've got to do to maybe get in behind them and score goals. We're going to work on that for a couple of days.

"I'm going to go out with the players and ask them to reproduce today's performance because that was probably as good an away performance as we've given, on a par with the Liverpool one, where we also lost.

"But that won't be easy because it's a short turnaround. Basically, the players gave a lot today so I think they're going to need a lot of tender love and care if they're going to be able to get out on Wednesday night and give anything like the sort of performance they have done."