April 17 2012

Darren Ambrose

Crystal Palace crashed to a 2-1 defeat at relegation battlers Portsmouth.

Victory for Portsmouth has given them slender hopes of avoiding the drop, while Palace's disappointing end to the season continues.

Palace began the game well with the lively Wilfried Zaha forcing Pompey keeper Jamie Ashdown into a save before firing over shortly after.

Dave Kitson nodded over for the hosts and Antonio Pedroza chipped an effort just over the crossbar for the Eagles.

Portsmouth's Luke Varney struck a post and they took the lead in the 32nd minute as Scott Allan's deflected shot cannoned off Nathaniel Clyne and past a wrong-footed Julian Speroni into the goal.

Chris Maguire for Pompey and Pedroza for Palace went close until the south coast club doubled their lead 10 minutes after the break with a Greg Halford header.

The Eagles pulled a goal back from the penalty spot on 71 minutes through sub DARREN AMBROSE after Varney brought down Zaha in the area.

Paddy McCarthy had the ball in the Portsmouth net but it was ruled out for an infringement, while Maguire saw an effort cleared off the Palace goal line late on.

Portsmouth: Ashdown, Ward, Rocha, Pearce, Rekik, Allan (Harris 85), Halford, Norris, Maguire, Kitson, Varney.

Not Used: Mokoena, Futacs, Scapuzzi, Magri.

Palace: Speroni, Clyne, McCarthy, McShane, Moxey, Garvan, Pedroza (Scannell 77), O'Keefe, Zaha, Martin (Appiah 57), Parr (AMBROSE 64).

Not Used: Price, De Silva.