July 11 2015

Dwight Gayle (Photo: Andy Roberts)

Dwight Gayle's hat-trick got Crystal Palace's pre-season campaign off to a winning start with a 5-3 success at Barnet.

With Palace's internationals unavailable, manager Alan Pardew put out a mixture of first team and Academy players at the Bee Hive Stadium.

But the Eagles conceded with just 75 seconds gone on the clock when John Akinde tapped past keeper Julian Speroni.

Gayle grabbed his first goal of the day, curling in his own low free-kick from the edge of the box beyond Graham Stack.

The striker got his second of the game on 11 minutes with a brilliant long-range effort that went in off the post.

Pardew rang the changes for the second half and Gayle added another to complete his hat-trick for 3-1.

Luke Gambin pegged it back to 3-2 for the Bees before Reise Allassani stretched Palace's lead to 4-2 on 77 minutes.

Barnet refused to lie down and Kevin Lisbie reduced the arrears with a goal, before Fraizer Campbell made sure of the victory to end the match 5-3.

Palace: (first half): Speroni, Ward, Hangeland, Delaney, Kelly, Gray, Boateng, Puncheon, Kaikai, Gayle, Murray.

(second half): Kettings, Ward (Croll 60), Dann, McCarthy, Binnom-Williams, Dymond (Scales 73), Kaikai, Gray (Allassani 65), Boateng (Anderson 65), Campbell, Gayle (Breimyr 65).

All 5 of #CPFC's goals Vs Barnet. Hatrick for @dwightgayle and one for @RAllassani and @FraizerCampbell finishing 3-5 pic.twitter.com/dV9Y5isrq8

— CPFCGIFS (@GIFS_CPFC) July 11, 2015