“It should give them a lift,” he told Sky Sports in his pre-match interview. “It certainly gives everyone around the club a lift.
“No doubt Wilf has been fundamental in our creation of goals and goal chances, and Jeff as well has been. He needs a good spell now Jeff, because this season so far has been stop start.”
Hodgson explained why both start on the substitutes bench.
“Wilf is phenomenal in that respect [recovering from injury] so I think he can give us quite a lot of time if that’s something we want to do,” he said, “but I didn’t want to change the team from the last two performances which have been good.
“Of course, Wilf has been out a long time and hasn’t done a lot of training, so it’s a bit of a luxury to have him on the bench, but it’s something I had to do. Him and Jeff Schlupp to have on the bench, who have both been out, can definitely change things for us in terms of our attacking play.”
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