Eagles see off Sky Blues

November 6 2002

Crystal Palace booked their place in the fourth round of the Worthington Cup beating Coventry by three goals to nil.

Andy Johnson can't stop scoring at the moment, tonight he added another two to his tally making it 10 goals in five games.

Substitute Julian Gray added a third two minutes before the final whistle to lead the Eagles into the next round.

But Palace could have gone two down in the opening stages as Lee Mills had a shot wide followed by a similar effort from Brian Kerr.

Against the run of play in the 20th minute, Cov goalkeeper Morten Hyldgaard sliced his clearance to Dougie Freedman.

The Scot passed to Dele Adebola, who beat his marker and crossed for Johnson to head home from eight yards.

It should have been two nil three minutes after, as Freedman was through on goal but ballooned his shot wide.

Mills did the same for the visitors from a Partridge cross and they stepped up the tempo for an equalising goal as Craig Hignett forced Alex Kolinko into a save with a header.

Johnson put Palace in the driving seat with his and Palace's second goal from 20 yards in the 75th minute in off the post.

And with just two minutes remaining, Gray netted Hyldgaard's parried save from Steve Thomson's shot to seal the tie.

Starting line-ups:

Crystal Palace: Kolinko, Butterfield, Popovic, Powell, Granville, Riihilahti, Derry, Mullins, Johnson, Adebola, Freedman.

Subs: Michopoulos, Black, Symons, Gray, Thomson.

Coventry City: Hyldgaard, Gordon, Konjic, Davenport, Caldwell, Partridge, McAllister, Safri, Kerr, Hignett, Mills.

Subs: Debec, Shaw, Eustace, Chippo, Bothroyd.

Rate the players' performance

Send us your match report

See how you got on in the Prediction League