Eagles see off Saints in cup

January 9 2016

Wilfried Zaha

Crystal Palace sealed their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 2-1 win at Southampton.

Palace knocked out the Saints in the cup for the second successive season thanks to a winning strike from Wilfried Zaha.

Eagles stopper Wayne Hennessey put in a man-of-the-match performance to keep his team in the tie with a large number of wonderful saves.

The first of which was a close-range effort from Southampton forward Shane Long early on.

Palace went in front after 29 minutes when Jason Puncheon went upon a fine run from the halfway line and squared to Joel Ward to score his third goal of the season.

Saints pressed for the equaliser after the interval and it duly arrived in the 51st minute as Hennessey parried Sadio Mane's strike and Oriol Romeu put away the rebound.

The home side were looking the more likely to carve out a winner, but in the 68th minute Palace added another goal. Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg pushed out Puncheon's shot to Zaha, who volleyed in his fourth goal of the campaign.

And the Londoners hung on for the victory as former Palace defender Jose Fonte headed over and Shane Long nodded onto the post. Then Hennessey brilliantly palmed away a late free-kick from James Ward-Prowse.