December 18 2004

Danny Granville

Crystal Palace have lost 5-2 against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Manchester United were set to take an early lead when Darren Fletcher was fouled inside the box and were awarded a penalty. Palace keeper GABOR KIRALY, however, saved Wayne Rooney's spot kick.

On 22 minutes Manchester United did take the lead through Paul Scholes, but The Eagles hit back five minutes later when Danny Granville hit the net from a Wayne Routledge corner.

Palace's joy only lasted eight minutes when Alan Smith restored the home side's advantage.

After the break it looked like Palace were back into the game as Joonas Kolkka made it 2-2 only seconds after the restart.

Manchester United hit back immediately. Emmerson Boyce looped a header past his own goalkeeper and a minute later Scholes scored his second of the game.

In stoppage time substitute John O'Shea scored to make the final score 5-2 to the home side.

Manchester Utd 5

Scholes 22 49, Smith 35, Boyce 48 (og), O'Shea 90

Crystal Palace 2

Granville 26, Kolkka 46

Manchester Utd: R Carroll, G Neville, R Ferdinand, M Silvestre, Q Fortune, D Fletcher, P Scholes, R Keane, R Giggs, W Rooney, A Smith.

Subs: T Howard, P Neville, D Bellion, L Miller, J O'Shea.

Crystal Palace: G KIRALY, E Boyce, G Sorondo, F Hall, D Granville, W Routledge, A Riihilahti, B Watson, M Hughes, J Kolkka, A Johnson.

Subs: J Speroni, T Popovic, T Soares, W Andrews, V Lakis.

Referee: S Dunn.