Terry Venables: Hallowe'en horror

If El Tel rushed back to London on Saturday night for a Halloween Party he needn't have bothered.

The former England boss's Palace side provided all the horror he could stomach at Grimsby's Blundell Park as the nine man Eagles crashed to a crushing 2-0 defeat that must seriously undermine their fans' hopes of an immediate return to Premiership.

At least El Tel could take heart from the contribution of new boy Lee Bradbury and the return of Marcus Bent, back from injury.

Despite being handed the debut from hell after his on-off £1.5 million move from Manchester City finally came off, 23-year-old Bradbury impressed in the 18 minutes he was on as substitute for Aussie Nicky Rizzo.

Bent, on for Lombardo in the final minutes, also looked strong on his return and was likely to be given another chance against West Bromwich Albion last night (Tuesday) when Palace travelled to the Hawthorns.

By the time the two youngsters entered the fray the stars of the Grimsby park horror show had left the field, defenders Craig Moore and Fan Zhiyi both collecting their marching orders as they vainly tried to cope with Grimsby's livewire striker Jack Lester.

China's skipper saw red in the 65th minute when Lester wriggled free and he chopped down the striker as he raced in on goal, leaving referee David Pugh no option but red.

Moore had earlier provided the horror story's warm-up act, the centre back going in the 49th minute for his second bookable offence.

Tommy Widdrington netted the Mariners' opener in 13 minutes and Jack Lester added the home side's second eight minutes after the break to confirm the Eagles' abysmal away season that has seen them concede 13 goals in four defeats out of six matches.

If El Tel wasn't already suffering a hangover from Saturday's disaster, fresh reports in the Sunday papers linking striker Matt Jansen with a £5 million move to Southampton won't have provided any headache relief.

Rumours that Hao Haidong, Chinese champions Dalian Wanda's leading scorer with 18 goals, could be on his way to Selhurst won't have helped either, although both reports were dismissed out of hand by the Eagle's boss.

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