October 29 2007

Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace's miserable run of form continued with a 2-0 defeat at home to Watford.

Boss Neil Warnock rang the changes and handed a full debut to 17-year-old Lee Hills at left-back, Portsmouth loan signing Franck Songo'o started, Jose Fonte replaced Leon Cort and there were also starts for Jeff Hughes and Dougie Freedman.

The Eagles began the match well with Songo'o looking dangerous with some penetrating runs down the right side.

But Watford stole the lead in the 33rd minute when Darius Henderson's flick-on fell to Marlon King at the back post, his shot was blocked by Julian Speroni. But the ball kindly fell to Tommy Smith and he swept home in off the post past a sea of Palace legs on the line.

The visitors extended their lead on 66 minutes after some good build-up play from Adam Johnson set up Marlon King to rifle a crisp low shot into the bottom corner.

Five minutes later, Academy star John Bostock came off the bench to become the youngest-ever Palace player, aged 15 years and 287 days old.

He showed some good touches but couldn't inspire his team-mates as they drop into the bottom three of the Championship.

Palace: Speroni, Lawrence, Hudson, Fonte, Hughes (Morrison 72), Hills, Fletcher, Watson (Bostock 72), Songo'o, Scowcroft, Freedman (Idrizaj 66).

Not used: Martin, Swaibu.