February 27 2016

Connor Wickham

Crystal Palace continued their shocking 2016 league form with a 3-2 defeat at West Bromwich Albion.

They didn't help themselves by getting off to a terrible start by going 3-0 down after 31 minutes, and although they staged a second-half fightback, it came too little, too late.

The Baggies went ahead on 12 minutes after Saido Berahino fed Salomon Rondon on the right and his shot across goal was saved by Wayne Hennessey's leg but into the path of Craig Gardner who had the simple task of scoring.

Their lead was doubled eight minutes later when Jordon Mutch gave away a free-kick on the byline and Gardner's set-piece was headed in by an unmarked Craig Dawson.

The home side grabbed a brilliant third goal in the 31st minute from Berahino who volleyed past Hennessey from Stephane Sessegnon's inch-perfect cross that split the Palace defence open.

A fourth goal almost went in after Gardner's free-kick was diverted by Joel Ward onto the Palace upright.

Eagles boss Alan Pardew replaced Emmanuel Adebayor for Yannick Bolasie at the break and the Londoners pulled a goal back three minutes later.

Albion defender Jonas Olsson failed to clear a Palace long ball as he thought keeper Ben Foster was coming for it and Connor Wickham nipped in and lobbed Foster before scoring into an empty net for his first Eagles goal from open play.

Berahino smashed against the woodwork on an Albion counter attack but Wickham pegged the score back to 3-2 with a superb left-foot strike from an acute angle.

Palace were denied two blatant penalties when Scott Dann was blatantly barged over in the area by Gareth McAuley and Darren Fletcher tripped Bolasie, to sum up another disappointing league performance. Their winless league run now extends to 10 games.

Alan Pardew: "For the first 30 minutes they swamped us with aggression and power. Their front two caused us problems but our front two didn't and our distribution wasn't good.

"The first half was a shock to me, the goals went in quickly, and it knocked our confidence. In the second half we were a completely different side."

"[The Scott Dann push] was a blatant penalty, I could see it from where I was. Scott was barged in the back, but we never seem to get those calls as we are a big side. Yannick Bolasie was good when he came on and he let it run across him [for his penalty appeal] but the guy took his legs."

West Brom boss Tony Pulis: "We have 11 games to get over the line and it's been an eventful season in many ways.

"Saido has taken most of the time with what has happened and we have missed him and James Morrison and now Chris Brunt. Overall, the team have done fantastically to get to 35 points with 11 games to go."

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