March 5 2006

Iain Dowie

IAIN DOWIE admitted Palace's automatic promotion hopes are fading after Leeds' smash and grab raid.

Robbie Blake and Rob Hulse scored to put Leeds in control and Jobi McAnuff's superb strike was too little, too late for Palace.

The Eagles are now 15 points adrift of second-placed Sheffield United and will have to settle for a play-off place at best.

DOWIE said: "This was a big opportunity missed for us.

We still hope to be able to reach second place, but we are making life very difficult for ourselves.

"There is now a mountain for us to climb.

"Leeds deserved to win today. They were not massively better than us but we didn't get going until the latter stages.

"We seemed to lack hunger, and that was disappointing.

"We were second-best far too often in both boxes. It was a really flat performance."