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April 25 2024 9.52am

Coventry City 1 - 0 Palace

Sat Aug 24 2002 - League

That man Lee Hughes yet again scored against Palace to give Coventry City this time, the three points as Palace left Highfield Road defeated 1-0.

Every time we played West Brom in the past he scored a hatful and he only took five minutes tonight to do the honours, winning and converting a penalty.

Match Stats

Ground: Highfield Road (Attendance: 15526)

Coventry City: Hyldgaard, Shaw, Konjic, Davenport, Gordon, Thompson, Eustace, Safri, Chippo (Bothroyd 55), Hughes (Walsh 68), Joachim (Quinn 68).

Subs not used: Montgomery, McSheffrey.

Bookings: Safri, Shaw, Thompson. Sent off: Safri 63.

Goal: Hughes 5 (pen).

Palace: Clarke, Powell, Popovic, Granville, Fleming (Thomson 81), Mullins, Derry (Johnson 67), Riihilahti (Black 77), Butterfield, Freedman, Adebola.

Subs not used: Kolinko, Austin.

Bookings: Powell , Riihilahti.

Referee: P Prosser (Gloucestershire).

Hughes raced onto a long ball as Darren Powell lost him then bundled him down in the penalty area. Hughes made no mistake from the spot.

Six minutes after Hughes headed a chance straight to Matt Clarke. Then Youssef Safri skied over the bar and Julian Joachim had a shot saved by Clarke.

Palace thought they had got an equaliser but the referee disallowed Tony Popovic's goal for a handball which looked very dubious.

The referee was handing out yellow cards like confetti and this lead to Coventry's Moroccan midfielder Safri getting sent off for a second bookable offence following a foul on Danny Butterfield on 63.

Palace briefly made the extra man count and Danny Granville had an effort saved by goalkeeper Morten Hyldgaard from a Butterfield corner.

Coventry manager Gary McAllister brought on defenders to tighten up at the back and Palace's weak attack looked less likely to score.

Jay Bothroyd had a chance to double Coventry's lead near the end of the match but his close range effort went over the bar.

Post match comments:

Trevor Francis said: "We all thought it had been ruled out for offside but the referee said he had seen a hand used.

"Tony said he did not touch the ball with his hand but what can you say?


Tony said he did not touch the ball with his hand but what can you say?
Francis on Popovic's disallowed goal

"It's a shame because that would have been his third goal of the season. We might not have deserved to have gone in at 1-1 but I thought we did well in the second half.

"In fact Coventry going down to 10 men probably harmed us more than them. They brought on Steve Walsh and played three big centre-halves and to be fair, they defended well."

Coventry City (A) Photos From The Terrace Photos

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