Everton 1 - 1 Palace

Wed Sep 12 2001 - League Cup

Crystal Palace pulled off the shock of the night in the Worthington Cup by beating Everton 5-4 on penalties after the game finished 1-1 at full time.

Everton took an early lead on four minutes through a Duncan Ferguson penalty after Kevin Campbell was tugged back in the box by Tony Popovic.

But just four minutes later, Palace were back in it, when Dougie Freedman was brought down in the area for another penalty by Everton keeper Paul Gerrard. Freedman stepped up and put it away to make it 1-1.

Paul Gascoigne was in quiet form, but sparked into life in the 15th minute, going past two Palace defenders but saw his shot fly high over the bar.

On 30 mins, Freedman had a one-on-one with the keeper, after bursting past four defenders, but saw his shot saved by Gerrard.

Newly-signed goalkeeper Matt Clarke pulled off a remarkable double save from Joe-Max Moore and Kevin Campbell two minutes before the break, as Everton pressed for another.

Kevin McLeod saw his shot go over the bar from 20 yards and Campbell has a great chance to score, but the ball hit the back of his heel.

The game sparked into life as both sides searched for the winning goal. In the third minute of injury time, Freedman was agonisingly denied by the woodwork, when his shot hit the crossbar.

Simon Rodger had a chance to wrap up the game in the last minute of extra time, but saw his shot go inches wide.

The game ended 1-1 and it went on to penalties.

Kevin Campbell missed for Everton, Dean Austin scored: 0-1 Palace Steve Watson scored, Freedman scored: 1-2 Palace Abel Xavier scored, Aki Riihilahti scored: 2-3 Palace Idan Tal scored, Hayden Mullins scored: 3-4 Palace Paul Gascoigne scored, Clinton Morrison scored: 4-5 Palace

Man of the match: Matt Clarke.

Post match comments:

Steve Bruce said his side deserved their Worthington Cup scalp over Premiership side Everton even before the penalty shoot-out.

Bruce said: "I felt we deserved it even after 90 minutes. I've only been at the club a couple of months and there is still a lot of work to be done, but you can see that I have got a lot of talented young players who could do well with a bit of experience.

"They did me proud out there, we deserve to be in the next round. Overall we deserved it because we were the better footballing side on the night."

Everton boss Walter Smith thought Palace deserved their win. He said: "It was disappointing to lose on penalties like that, on the balance of play we were better territorially, but Palace had the better chances.

"I can't argue on that respect, but after getting off to a good start with that early penalty I felt we should have gone on to take control of the game, but we didn't do that.

"Play was scrappy in the first half and we had all the pressure in the second half without really creating anything.

"Once it goes to penalties it's anybody's guess who will win in the end. Nobody likes losing like that, I'm disappointed, everybody's disappointed."

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