February 1 2003

Akinbiyi had an unhappy return to Leicester

Crystal Palace left the Walkers Stadium with a 1-0 defeat to promotion favourites Leciester City.

The smallest man on the pitch - Paul Dickov - got the only goal of the game in the 77th minute which flattered the home side.

Palace started well and Andy Johnson was unlucky to see his volley go inches over the bar. Ian Walker was called into action, making a good catch from a Tommy Black effort.

Johnson was starting to look lively and had a curling shot go just past Walker's post after 33 minutes.

Eight minutes before half-time, James Scowcroft headed Muzzy Izzet's corner wide and from the goalkick, Palace should have gone into the break with a deserved lead.

Mullins ran through the Foxes defence and with only Walker to beat, forced a top save from the former England keeper.

There was still time for Cedric Berthelin, replacing the AWOL Alex Kolinko, to make an easy save from Izzet before the ref blew for half-time.

In the second half, Danny Butterfield had a long-range shot go just wide and on the hour mark, Matt Elliott's header was cleared off the line from an Izzet corner.

Scowcroft then had a header go straight into the arms of Berthelin from close-range when he should have scored before Dickov scored what proved to be the winning goal with a great strike into the top corner with 13 minutes left and the result certainly flattered the title-challengers.

Starting line-ups:

Leicester: Walker, Sinclair, Elliott, Heath, Rogers, Scowcroft, Izzet, Davidson, Stewart, Dickov, Benjamin.

Subs: Summerbee, Taggart, Jones, Tommy Wright, Flowers.

Palace: Berthelin, Popovic, Symons, Powell, Butterfield, Mullins, Derry, Granville, Black, Johnson, Adebola.

Subs: Cronin, Akinbiyi, Freedman, Gray, Fleming.

Today's football results and scorers

Division One table

Palace 2002/3 team stats

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