December 28 2003

Iain Dowie

Iain Dowie celebrated his first win as Palace manager after the Eagles beat Ipswich Town 3-1 at Portman Road.

Palace started well with Neil Shipperley volleying wide, and Andy Johnson having two efforts blocked by the Town defence.

But Ipswich took the lead after 11 minutes when Jermaine Wright hit the Palace net with a right-footed volley from close-range after Palace failed to clear a corner.

Ian Westlake and Shefki Kuqi went close for the home side, while Johnson forced keeper Kelvin Davis into an easy stop.

Johnson, Wayne Routledge and Julian Gray were causing Ipswich all kinds of problems on the counter-attack with their pace and skill in the second period.

So it was no surprise that Palace came back into the match with a leveller from Johnson on the hour from Gray's cross.

Four minutes later, Johnson returned the favour for Gray when he ran onto a bad Town backpass, rounded the keeper and crossed in the centre for Gray to fire home inside the six-yard box.

In the 86th minute, Johnson picked up the ball in midfield from an Ipswich attack and charged at their defence.

He sent Gray through on goal and his strike was saved by the Davis but only as far as Johnson, who drove home from the edge of the box to seal the victory.

Ipswich Town: Davis, Wilnis, Naylor, Santos, Richards, Wright, Magilton, Bart-Williams, Westlake, Kuqi, Counago.

Subs: Abbey, Miller, Bent, Reuser, Bowditch.

Crystal Palace: Myhre, Butterfield, Popovic, Symons, Borrowdale, Routledge, Riihilahti, Hughes, Gray, Johnson, Shipperley.

Subs: Fleming, Freedman, Derry, Black, Berthelin.

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