Crystal Palace 0 v 2 Southampton

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CRYSTAL Palace could not get back to winning ways against Southampton and have now gone four matches wihtout victory.

The Eagles will be extremely disappointed with the manner of their defeat as the goals were as a result of defensive errors rather than Southampton's play.

Peter Taylor had made the point ahead of the game Palace needed to cut out conceding poor goals so he will not be happy with his players after this game.

The visitors deserve credit though, looking strong in defence, creative in midfield and crafty up front.

After conceding an early goal at Luton in the previous game, Palace didn't learn and were a goal down within two minutes.

Nathan Dyer won a corner on the right and when Rudi Skacel floated a cross in, Gabor Kiraly came to collect but was beaten to it by Kenwyne Jones, who had the simple task of heading into an unguarded net.

Palace almost struck straight back in the eighth minute when James Scowcroft did well to control a high ball on the edge of the box.

He turned his man and hit a dipping volley which came crashing back off the cross-bar and out to safety.

Michael Hughes then tried his luck with a 25- yarder after good build-up by Palace but his left-footed strike drifted just wide of the target.

Saints still looked dangerous though with the set pieces from Skacel and pace of Dyer in particular causing no end of problems for Palace's back-line which was showing two changes from Saturday's game at Luton with Matt Lawrence and Gary Borrowdale replacing Danny Butterfield and Danny Granville in the fullback spots.

Tom Soares tried his luck in the 24th minute after picking the ball up from Hughes in an advanced position but his shot was always rising and Kelvin Davis could watch it float over the bar.

With half time approaching, Saints could have been two goals up when Dyer's deep cross from the right was nodded back into the danger zone by Grzegorz Rasiak.

It picked out Jones but he guided his header over the bar.

Southampton finished the first half the stronger and Kiraly had to make saves to deny both Rasiak and Jones, although in truth neither effort really tested the Hungarian.

Palace made one change at the break, as Stuart Green was brought on to replace Soares who had limped off after the half time whistle.

It was a bad start to the second half though as Palace conceded within three minutes of the re-start and were caught out defensively again.

Skacel played a low cross into the centre, where Rasiak managed to lose the attentions of Mark Hudson and finish from close range.

Southampton really should have made it 3-0 soon after when Jones beat the offside trap to race clear on goal.

Kiraly came racing out to close him down but the Trinidad and Tobago international shot past him and towards goal.

It was heading in but Leon Cort did well to cover the keeper and head off the line.

The biggest cheer of the evening was reserved for a double switch by Palace just short of the hour mark when both Clinton Morrison and Dougie Freedman were introduced in place of Kuqi and Jobi McAnuff.

It certainly livened Palace up and Scowcroft was inches off connecting with a Mark Kennedy cross before Freedman traded passes with Scowcroft and then sent a low drive narrowly wide of the post.

Morrison then had a half chance after Scowcroft flicked on but he couldn't connect properly and Davis had an easy save to make.

Freedman felt he should have won a penalty when he attempted a cross from the right and Chris Makin appeared to block it with his hands but the officials chose to award a corner kick instead.

After five minutes of added time, proceedings were brought to an end on what was a disappointing night for the Eagles.

Palace fall to 12th in the Championship table while leapfrog them to ninth.

MATCH FACTS:

PALACE: Kiraly, Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, McAnuff (Freedman, 57) Scowcroft, Kennedy, Hughes, Borrowdale, Soares (Green, 45) Kuqi (Morrison, 57).

SUBS NOT USED: Speroni, Butterfield.

ATT: 17,084.