Hodgson rules out England job

Roy Hodgson has denied suggestions that the vacant England job could affect his contract talks with West Brom.

Hodgson has been tipped as a possible successor to Fabio Capello but hinted that discussions over a new deal at the Hawthorns could speed up now the Baggies had edged closer to Premier League safety by beating Blackburn Rovers 3-0 on Saturday.

“The England job has nothing to do with me,” Hodgson told reporters.

“I’m obliged to answer questions like every other Englishman but it has nothing to do with me as far as I’m concerned.

“I’m jumping the gun here but you can quite easily sign contracts with clauses in if someone else wants you and so on. You don’t have to wait and not do anything until another issue is settled.

“Now things are safer, I daresay (West Brom technical director) Dan Ashworth will make contact with my agent and start discussing potentially what will happen with regards to myself.”

Hodgson cited Ben Foster’s tremendous double save to deny Yakubu and Bradley Orr in the second half as the decisive moment in his side’s win over Blackburn.

“The double save was the turning point of the game,” Hodgson said.

“After a very good start we started to play a bit nervously (at the start of the second half).

“Our defending, which was very solid throughout the game, was keeping us in it. You had the feeling that if the next goal was ours, we would roll home to victory, but if they got it, they would make it a very tight end to the game. It was a game-changing moment.

“They have their style of play, which they’ve mastered well and it asks questions of your back four. If you don’t get in the right positions, they can create goalscoring opportunities.

“But apart from the double save, I don’t think Ben was overly stressed in goal.

“After a bad March, with one point from four games, we’d seen the security margin start to slip away and we were anxious to get a win today so we could be relatively comfortable for the last six games.”

Blackburn manager Steve Kean Also pointed to Foster’s heroics as a vital moment in the match and was disappointed with his side’s slow start.

“I’ve looked at the chances we’ve had and I think the defining moment in the game is the double save by Ben Foster,” Kean said.

“I thought we were poor in the first half but changed shape in the second half and dominated the first 20 minutes. But we had to score and once the second goal goes in, it was going to be very tough for us.

“They came right out of the blocks and it was disappointing not to get a foothold in the game early on with three central midfield players.

“We need to play better than we did in the first half, but I think every neutral would say that if we’d scored in our good period in the second half, things could have been different.”

Kean admitted that he did think Anthony Modeste had kicked out at Billy Jones in the incident that led to the striker’s red card but thought that the Grenadian pulled out of the challenge before making any real contact.

“I think he was going to kick him, but he’s changed his mind,” Kean said.

“But the referee says if there’s intent there, contact doesn’t matter, and it’s a red card.

“There is a possibility to appeal – I think he’s tried to pull out of it, but if intent’s enough I don’t think we’re going to win an appeal.”