Crystal Palace 0 v 3 Watford

Coca-Cola Championship

Play-off Semi-final 1st Leg

CRYSTAL Palace's dream of returning to the Premiership at the first attempt looks shattered, broken, destroyed and smashed after a dismal Selhurst performance.

The Eagles needed a second-leg miracle at Vicarage Road last night to reverse a 3-0 home defeat at the weekend.

For a full report, visit newsshopper.co.uk Things started to go wrong in the first leg a minute after half time when Marlon King fired the Hornets ahead.

Ashley Young made it 2-0 on 67 minutes and Matthew Springs 85th minute strike leaves Palace with the proverbial mountain to climb.

However, boss Iain Dowie was remaining positive as he turned up for training bright and early on Monday morning.

He said: "I'm not interested in players coming in and tripping over their chins.

"They'll get short shrift this morning and I'm not in the business of being sensitive because we've got a job to do and my nature is positive.

"We had a bad day, now what are we going to do about it? It's not about feeling sorry for ourselves."

He added: "Yesterday was a time to reflect but I demand they give their best and in the second half on Saturday, they didn't give their best."

Palace had chances through Andy Johnson, recently called as a standby for England's World Cup squad, Jobi McAnuff, Clinton Morrison and Emmerson Boyce.

Dowie said: "We lost our shape and discipline after their second goal and that's where we went wrong.

"We had people going more advanced than they should be and we didn't pass the ball but we went direct, which we should never do."

MATCH FACTS: CRYSTAL PALACE: Kiraly; Ward (Butterfield, 65); Popovic; Fitz Hall; Boyce; Watson; Hughes; Soares (Freedman, 65); McAnuff; Johnson; Morrison.

SUBS NOT USED: Reich; Leigertwood; Speroni.

ATT: 22,880.