Sheffield United defender Max Lowe admitted he was taking stick from his team-mates for coming out on the losing side of a touchline scuffle with Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson.
The pair clashed midway through the second half of Palace’s 1-0 opening day win when Hodgson stopped Lowe from retrieving the ball in the dugout, with the Blades left-back appearing to shove the 76-year-old in the midriff.
They both laughed off the exchange shortly after, but Lowe was not allowed to forget it in the dressing room.
‘His abs are stronger than I thought, obviously,’ Lowe said after the game. ‘All the boys are laughing and saying, ‘That’s 1-0 to Roy’.
Sheffield United’s Max Lowe was given stick by team-mates after clashing with Roy Hodgson
Lowe was involved in a touchline altercation with Palace manager Hodgson at Bramall Lane
‘I’ll leave it at that!
‘I felt terrible afterwards when I realised.
‘In the heat of the moment I forgot where I was and I felt awful at the end of it. I thought he was going to pull me up at the end of the game and I was thinking, ‘Please don’t come over to me now’.
‘To be honest I thought it was our ball – there are obviously no hard feelings.’
Hodgson joked after the game that he had surprised himself with his reaction and Lowe was also shocked to be tussling with a man 50 years his senior.
‘I didn’t (expect it) either,’ he said. ‘So I was a bit shocked.
‘I don’t know if you saw my reaction? I was laughing at the time … but Roy wasn’t laughing.
‘Fair play to him, it was a competitive game and you could see that reflected by both teams on the pitch.’
Palace striker Odsonne Edouard says that his goal in his side’s victory will help his confidence
Odsonne Edouard’s second-half goal decided the game at Bramall Lane as Palace got off to a winning start.
The former Celtic striker only scored five times in the league last season but wants to do much better this time around.
He said on Palace’s website: ‘It was the first game, and we worked very hard to win the first game. I think we dominated the game. We should score more goals but it is good for the next few games.
‘I’m a striker, so my target is to score goals for the team and I hope I will do this to help the team. It is good for the confidence as a forward.
‘We have a good team, we have to work hard and today we win and we proved we have a good squad.
‘It’s just the start of the season. There are 37 games coming, so we will see.’
