Muzza helps Eagles to victory

March 21 2015

Glenn Murray (Photo: Andy Roberts)

A goal and an assist from Crystal Palace's Glenn Murray helped them to a 2-1 win away at Stoke City.

Pardew opted for just one change from the side which beat QPR last weekend - Pape Souaré coming in for Martin Kelly at left back.

Stoke took the lead through Mame Diouf in the 14th minute after Charlie Adam's free kick was deflected into his path, and he slotted past Julian Speroni in the Palace goal.

Palace were struggling to keep the ball in the first half, but they scored a surprise equaliser on 41 minutes. Yannick Bolasie was adjudged to have been fouled by Stoke keeper Amir Begovic in the box, and Murray cooly slammed home the resulting penalty.

It got even better for the Eagles shortly before half time when a long kick from Speroni was flicked on by Murray, and Wilfried Zaha did brilliantly to fire past Begovic to put the South Londoners 2-1 up.

In the second half, Palace had a few chances to extend their lead, including a volley from Scott Dann which hit the post.

Stoke did have their chances to equalise though, and Palace were indebted to Speroni who made some great saves.

The 2-1 win means that Palace are now in 11th place in the Premier League, one place above Alan Pardew's previous club Newcastle United.

Pardew: "Stoke were terrific so we really had to dig deep.

"Character got us the win today and this is one of the best teams I've managed for that. Incredible character.

"I'm overjoyed for the players because they worked really hard we had to dig deep.

"To get to 36 points is us done, really. With eight games and the way we're playing you'd expect us to be there."

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