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April 26 2024 7.38am

Brighton 0 - 0 Palace

Tue Mar 25 2003 - League

Ten-man Crystal Palace played out an entertaining 0-0 draw away to Brighton at the Withdean Stadium.

Match Stats

Ground: Withdean Stadium (Attendance: 6786)

Brighton: Beasant, Ingimarsson, Cullip (Pethick, 43), Blackwell, Watson, Carpenter, Brooker, Rodger, Mayo, Hart, Barrett

Subs not used: Oatway, Jones, Wilkinson, Packham

Palace: Kolinko, Butterfield, Powell, Symons, Granville (sent off 67), Gray (Borrowdale, 45), Black (Antwi, 77), Derry, Thomson, Adebola (Williams, 66), Whelan

Subs not used: Routledge, Berthelin

Bookings: Granville , Whelan

Referee: P A Durkin (Portland)

The Eagles had Danny Granville sent off for the second time this season in the 65th minute.

Alex Kolinko was called into action in the eighth minute, putting Gary Hart's strike out for a corner. Moments later, he parried away Paul Brooker's effort when through on goal.

Palace responded with a Danny Butterfield volley from 35 yards which went over the bar.

Noel Whelan, the on-loan striker returning from injury, put through Steve Thomson who saw his shot tipped over the bar by veteran keeper Dave Beasant.

Hart shot wide from Brooker's cross moments later before Graham Barrett fired at Kolinko from long range.

Whelan was then inches away from getting on the scoresheet, while down the other end Kolinko made another good save from Richard Carpenter's volley and Barrett's chip hit the post as Brooker headed over the bar.

In the second half, Dean Blackwell got in the way of Whelan's shot and Thomson struck the rebound over.

Then Whelan's cross to Tommy Black was volleyed across the goal and Dele Adebola saw his effort fly over the crossbar.

Barrett forced Kolinko into another save before shaving the post with a shot shortly after.

Granville, who had already been booked, got his marching orders after a foul on Hart.

Simon Rodger's free-kick was cleared only as far as Richard Carpenter who was thwarted by yet another Kolinko save.

With two minutes remaining Hart wasted a chance to give Brighton the three points as he fired over from eight yards.

Post match comments:

Francis said: "I would like us to have played better but I can't fault our battling qualities. Overall, I am pleased with the way we performed.

"We initially set our stall out for the win by playing with three up front but the sending off put us on the back foot.


I would like us to have played better but I can't fault our battling qualities.
Trevor Francis

"It was then that we showed our battling side. We dug deep and we've got to be happy to take four points from Brighton this season."

Alex Kolinko was comfortably named man of the match for a top display. Francis said: "He pulled off the save of the match in the first half to keep the scores level. It's our second successive clean sheet and that’s pleasing."

Noel Whelan a missed a good chance to break the deadlock but his effort flashed past the post and Francis added: "He should have hit the target with that chance but I can't have any complaints about the result because they really came at us."

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