July 26 2002

Gareth Williams

GARETH WILLIAMS marked his first-team start for Palace with a goal in the Eagles' 2-0 win over Swansea in their latest pre-season friendly.

Welshman WILLIAMS opened the scoring after 20 minutes and Danny Butterfield grabbed the second 13 minutes later.

But Swansea had the better of the opening exchanges and if it wasn't for the heroics of Matt Clarke, could have been two goals to the good in the opening five minutes.

Clarke put a Paul Reid shot out for a corner and blocked a Jason Smith header from the resulting flag kick.

From here on, the Eagles forced home keeper Roger Freestone into some saves and soon took the lead.

Steve Thomson struck a shot which came off the bar and rebounded for WILLIAMS to net from close range.

Butterfield struck his goal from 10 yards after walking into acres of space on the right hand side.

The second half was used as a run-out for the substitutes and became a scrappy, bad-tempered affair.

Swansea's Jason Thomas and Wood had half chances and Palace's WILLIAMS in the last minute from close range, but the score finished at 2-0 to the Londoners.

Palace: Clarke (Kolinko 45), Fleming, Granville, Austin (Antwi 73), Popovic, Butterfield, Routledge (Hunt 81), Thompson (Rubins 71), WILLIAMS, Black, Frampton.