January 24 2009

Paul Ifill

A Crystal Palace second half comeback against Watford wasn't enough as they lose their 4th round FA Cup tie 4-3.

Neil Warnock made two changes to the side which lost 4-1 to Ipswich last weekend.

Neil Danns and Victor Moses were brought into the starting eleven, as Palace attempted to cite revenge on the Hornets who knocked out Palace last season.

Palace found themselves 2-0 down within the first half an hour - Jay DeMerit and Jack Cork with the goals - both assisted by former Eagle Jobi McAnuff.

In the second half Palace clawed a goal back within three minutes of the restart through Clint Hill with a close range header.

The Eagles almost equalised on the hour mark, when Jose Fonte connected with a John Oster corner, but the Portugese's header went over the crossbar.

A McAnuff corner a few minutes later was put back into the box by the on-loan Grzegorz Rasiak. The ball fell kindly for Will Hoskins who made no mistake with a shot past Julian Speroni to make it 3-1.

More trouble for Palace followed quickly after, when McAnuff sprinted down the right flank and squared the ball for Rasiak to control the ball and put the home team 4-1 up with a shot on the outside of his left foot.

Warnock, determined to get his side back into the game, made a number of substitutions - Carl Fletcher, Shefki Kuqi and Danny Butterfield taking to the field.

The substitutions seemed to give Palace renewed energy in attack and found themselves clawing back two goals in the final few minutes through Danns and Paul Ifill, but it wasn't enough to save the game and it ended 4-3.

Palace: Speroni, Clyne (Butterfield, 76), Lawrence, Fonte, Hill, Derry (Fletcher,75), Danns, Ifill, Oster, Lee (Kuqi, 78), Moses

Not used: Carle, Flahavan, Scannell, Hills

Watford: Loach, Hoyte (Kiernan, 90), DeMerit, Mariappa, Doyley, Cork, McAnuff, Harley, Jenkins, Rasiak (O'Toole, 77), Hoskins (Bridcutt, 86)

Not used: Searle, Sadler, Eustace, Bangura

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