Eagles snatch a draw at Brentford

July 31 2010

A second half equaliser by Kieron Cadogan secured Crystal Palace a 1-1 draw with Brentford.

George Burley opted to play trialist Velice Sumulikoski in midfield and there was a welcome return for Nathaniel Clyne who has recently been playing for the Under 19 England side.

Michael Spillane should have put Brentford ahead from a corner in the 15th minute, but he put his header wide of Julian Speroni's goal.

Brentford made the breakthrough however in the 28th minute, when Nicky Forster rammed the ball home from just three yards out after good work by Myles Weston.

Palace tried to get back into the game and had a Sumulikoski header saved by Simon Moore.

Weston should have then put Brentford 2-0 up after Speroni pushed a cross by Forster straight into his path, but he was unable to control the ball.

At the break Burley pulled off Calvin Andrew and Kieran Djilali and replaced them with Wilfried Zaha and Alan Lee.

An excellent run by Kieron Cadogan in the 60th minute was halted when he was brought down just outside the box.

Darren Ambrose stepped up to take the resulting free kick and almost had Moore beaten with his strong shot but the keeper managed to get a finger tip to it to push it over the bar.

From the resulting corner Palace grabbed their equaliser. Claude Davis headed towards goal and Cadogan snuck in front of Moore to head home.

Weston continued to cause Palace problems, but Zaha was also looking lively for the Eagles, and had a couple of good opportunities late on but couldn't convert them.

Palace: Speroni, Clyne, Wright (Capaldi, 65), Davis (Holland, 75), Sumulikoski, Barrett, Ambrose, Dorman (Danns, 70), Andrew (Lee, 46), Cadogan, Djilali (Zaha, 46)

Subs: Kasim, Price, Holness, Nnmani, Pinney