February 17 2007

Mark Kennedy

Peter Taylor admitted Palace's promotion hopes are effectively over after Birmingham's smash and grab raid.

Taylor's side are 14 points away from the play-off places following a 1-0 defeat against Birmingham.

That gap is almost certain to prove too big to overcome, as Taylor was forced to acknowledge in the aftermath of Palace's second successive defeat.

Cameron Jerome's first half strike was enough to give former Eagles boss Steve Bruce a victorious return to Selhurst Park.

"It makes it very hard for us," Taylor said. "I'm realistic enough to know we need to go on an amazing run now and we need to play much better than we did today.

"It was a very disappointing performance. We didn't create enough chances and we didn't deserve to win.

"When we hit the post in the first half I thought it may have given the players some confidence for the second half. We needed to start like that again and we didn't."