Hodgson joke a compliment - Townsend

Andros Townsend has described Roy Hodgson's comment that prompted a race row as a "compliment". England boss Hodgson was criticised for referring to a joke about a monkey and an astronaut at half-time in Tuesday's World Cup qualifier against Poland. Continue reading the main story “You would have to go a long way to find somebody who is less racist than me” Roy Hodgson Hodgson was trying to encourage right-back Chris Smalling to pass to Townsend, 22, more often. uot;The manager just told the players to give the ball to me so that's a compliment," said the Tottenham winger. "Everyone should be focusing on England qualifying for Brazil - not on negative silly news." The joke, the exact wording of which is still unclear, revolves around an astronaut and a monkey on a space mission. The monkey performs all the tasks requested by mission control, with the punchline being that the astronaut's only role is to feed the monkey. Hodgson added: "I admit that some of the younger players may not have understood the reference to the monkey in space. They may not have heard the expression before but that's a generational thing. "I meant 'give the ball to the player who can make things happen'. There was no other connotation, and no offence was taken by any of the players. "You would have to go a long way to find somebody who is less racist than me. I have coached almost everywhere in the last 37 years, worked with all kinds of people, so this intimation of racism - you can hardly call it a story - is so saddening." The incident came during Townsend's second game for England, after he had scored on his debut in the 4-1 win over Montenegro.