Coventry City 2 - 1 Palace

Sun May 9 2004 - League

Crystal Palace lost 2-1 at Coventry but West Ham's draw with Wigan meant the Eagles qualifed for the play-offs.

Match Stats

Ground: Highfield Road (Attendance: 22195) Coventry City: Shearer, Deloumeaux, Konjic, Davenport, Warnock (Giddings, 89), Gudjonsson, Safri, Doyle, Barrett (Jorgensen, 78), Morrell (Shaw, 72), McSheffrey Subs not used: Brush, Whing Bookings: McSheffrey, Morrell Goals: Konjic 4, Doyle 27 Palace: Vaesen, Butterfield, Popovic, Leigertwood (Freedman, 59), Granville, Routledge, Hughes, Gray, Riihilahti (Derry, 59), Shipperley (Black, 83), Johnson Subs not used: Berthelin, Borrowdale Booking: Hughes, Popovic, Routledge Goal: Freedman 64 Referee: A N Butler (Sutton-in-Ashfield)

Palace started off badly as Danny Butterfield and Nico Vaesen almost scored own goals in the opening seconds of this crucial Division One clash.

Then Coventry took the lead after just four minutes when Muhamed Konjic headed home Bjarni Gudjonsson's cross.

Michael Doyle doubled Coventry's advantage from a quick counter-attack on 27 as he shook off close attention of Butterfield to score into the bottom corner.

Substitute Dougie Freedman pulled a close-range goal back from Andy Johnson's cross on 64 minutes.

The Eagles pressed for the equaliser - Julian Gray had two good chances, the first of which went over the bar, while the second was dramatically cleared off the line.

Celebrations started in the Palace end after news came through that West Ham scored a dramatic last minute equaliser against Wigan to send Palace into the play-offs.

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