November 23 2015

Scott Dann (Photo: Andy Roberts)

Toothless Crystal Palace went down to a 1-0 defeat at home to an uninspiring Sunderland.

Palace fielded arguably their strongest XI the season but failed to make their dominance count with too many players playing below par.

In the end, Sunderland got a smash-and-grab victory – their first away win of the league campaign – thanks to Jermaine Defoe's 80th-minute goal.

Patrick van Aanholt and Defoe had half chances to score for the Black Cats in a woeful first half of football, while Palace had totally lost their shooting boots. After the break, they almost breached the Palace goal when Yohan Cabaye hacked Sebastian Coates' header off the line.

Substitute Bakary Sako's rasping curler was the closest Palace came to scoring – Connor Wickham was particularly disappointing – and Yohan Cabaye forced a fine save from Sunderland keeper Costel Pantilimon. But the Eagles could not make their possession count with Sunderland content to hit them on the counter attack.

One such breakaway led to the only goal of the game as Yannick Bolasie lost the ball in the middle, and as Scott Dann failed to deal with Billy Jones' through ball to Defoe, the striker nipped in and tapped passed the on-rushing Wayne Hennessey to score into an empty net.

Yohan Cabaye struck a free-kick just wide in stoppage time but Palace suffered their fourth home defeat in seven league games this season.

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souare, McArthur, Cabaye, Zaha, Puncheon (Sako 46) (Bamford 69), Bolasie, Wickham (Chamakh 76).

Not used: Speroni, Kelly, Ledley, Jedinak.

Sunderland: Pantilimon, Jones, Van Aanholt, Cattermole, Larsson (Watmore 60), Kaboul, O'Shea, Defoe (Graham 86), M'Vila, Coates, Fletcher (Lens 59).

Not used: Johnson, Toivonen, Yedlin, Mannone.

Alan Pardew said: "We got a lot of the ball, a lot of possession. Unfortunately we could not create a sweet moment tonight and things went the wrong way for us.

"Our crossing and final pass let us down. It was a simplistic game they played but they did it well.

"Dann tried to take Defoe and edge him out, but Defoe checked his run and got on the other side of him. Dann has been magnificent for us. We will have to pick ourselves up for Saturday."

2015/16 match reports

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