July 14 2010

Adam Barrett

Crystal Palace's first pre-season friendly of the summer ends in a 1-0 defeat to Conference side Crawley Town.

In his first game in charge of the Eagles, George Burley picked a starting line-up which included new signings Andy Dorman, Adam Barrett and David Wright.

There was also places for trialists Dean Morgan (previously played for MK Dons) and Remi Mareval, a French leftback.

Palace dominated the play from the outset, and Dorman showed his goal scoring potential from midfield with a curling effort which was well saved by Crawley keeper Michel Kuipers.

It was Crawley however who scored what proved to be the only goal of the game on 15 minutes.

New signing Matt Tubbs ended a fine move by striking a lovely shot on the edge of the 18 yard box, which dipped over Julian Speroni and hit the underside of the bar and nestled into the net.

Morgan, Barrett, and Alasane N'Diaye all had efforts to equalise but couldn't put the ball past Kuipers.

After the break Burley opted to make three substitutions bringing on another trialist Bruno Simao, teenage striker Wilfried Zaha and Calvin Andrew.

Zaha looked the liveliest of the three and had several off target efforts on goal.

Morgan was replaced on 62 minutes by another trialist, former Chelsea midfielder Liam Bridcutt who looked lively on the ball and worked hard during his 20 minute spell on the pitch.

Palace were unable get back into the match and the game ended 1-0 to the Conference side.

Palace: Speroni, Wright, Mareval (Simao, 45), McCarthy, Barratt, N'Diaye (Holness, 72), Danns (Pinney, 85), Dorman (Cadogan, 67), Djilali (Zaha, 45), Lee (Andrew, 45), Morgan (Bridcutt, 62)

Subs not used: Nnanami, Price

Action from the game, including Dorman's excellent strike in the first half