Roy Hodgson has warned Harry the Hornet not to “provoke the crowd” and reignite diving claims regarding Wilfried Zaha. Watford’s mascot dived on the Vicarage Road pitch after Crystal Palace’s visit in December 2016, mocking the forward over diving allegations.

Zaha said there was an “agenda” against him after being booked for diving at Watford in April. Hodgson on Friday said he would never let a Palace mascot do anything as incendiary as what happened at Watford and that Zaha does not dive.

“If you’re asking me whether Harry the Hornet, who I presume is the mascot, should dive in that way, I think it’s disgraceful,” the Palace manager said. “Because that’s not what football matches are about. If it’s provoking the crowd into looking for something that’s not there, it should be stopped.

“Wilf Zaha does not dive for penalties. He gets knocked over sometimes – sometimes he gets knocked over or unbalanced without it being a penalty or a foul – because he runs at such speed and has such agility with the ball. But he certainly doesn’t dive.

“But of course teams try to take every advantage they can. I would be very disappointed if the Palace mascot was doing something like that to provoke the crowd against an opponent. And if I found out about it, I would stop it.”