July 16 2001

Crystal Palace

The Eagles beat Croatian First Division outfit NK Cakovec by two goals to nil yesterday.

With this win, Palace remained unbeaten and did not concede a single goal in their two games in sunny Spain.

In a good game, Palace opened the scoring through Dougie Freedman after 39 minutes. Freedman collected a pass from Jamie Smith, found himself one on one with the keeper and clinically put the ball into the corner of the net.

Clinton Morrison, who returned to action after a shin injury, had the biggest chance for Palace apart from the goal in the first half, but his 20-yard effort was well saved by the Croatian keeper.

Cakovec, who finished seventh in the Croatian league last season, saw a goal disallowed for offside.

The second half was dominated by The Eagles, which resulted in an excellent goal by Julian Gray. With two minutes remaining, Gray converted a cross from Wayne Carlisle.

The Palace side included Jovan Kirovski, who is on trial at the club from Sporting Lisbon.

Eagles starting eleven: Gregg, Smith, Frampton, Austin, Mullins, Hopkin, Thomson, Kirovski, Freedman, Morrison and Riihilahti.