March 1 2003

Molineux

Crystal Palace suffered their worst defeat of the season with a 4-0 hammering away to Wolves.

They were dealt a blow as early as the 13th minute when Andy Johnson had to come off injured and was replaced by former Wolves striker Ade Akinbiyi.

Wolves had two opportunities to score - Kenny Miller shot wide after 18 minutes and Colin Cameron volleyed over the bar shortly afterwards.

After 25 minutes, Trevor Francis made his second substitution of the game, bringing on starlet Wayne Routledge for Aki Riihilahti.

Akinbiyi headed over the bar from Shaun Derry's corner on 32 minutes and a couple of minutes later, Dele Adebola fired wide. Denis Irwin then had a curling free-kick wide of Cedric Berthelin's goal.

Five minutes before the interval, Miller broke the deadlock for Wolves. Adam Proudlock's low cross from the right went as far as Mark Kennedy who put the ball back in the danger area and Miller slotted home from close range.

Worse was to follow in the second half. In the 77th minute, Dean Sturridge netted from Kennedy's cross to make it two-nil.

Six minutes later, Miller added his second when he got on the end of Cameron's throughball and fired home.

He completed his hat-trick when he was fouled by Darren Powell in the box and picked himself up to score the spotkick to complete a miserbale day for Palace.

Palace: Berthelin, Butterfield, Gray, Popovic, Symons, Powell, Derry, Mullins, Riihilahti (Routledge 25), Adebola (Black 64), Johnson (Akinbiyi 15).

Subs not used: Kolinko, Granville.

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