Morrison brace sees off Luton

February 24 2007

Clinton Morrison

Clinton Morrison grabbed two goals against Luton Town, as Crystal Palace ran out 2-1 winners at Selhurst Park.

Peter Taylor brought back Tom Soares to the right of midfield after serving a 3 match suspension.

Dougie Freedman moved to the left, as Paul Ifill and Jobi McAnuff were out injured. Clinton Morrison partnered Jamie Scowcroft, whilst there were places on the bench again for Lewis Grabban and Dave Martin.

Palace were forced to make a change to their lineup after only 8 minutes. Mark Kennedy limped off after suffering a tweak to his hamstring, and was replaced by Danny Butterfield.

After an uneventful first 30 minutes of the match, Palace created a great chance to score when Scowcroft flicked on a header to Morrison, who turned and shot, but his effort went inches wide.

It was Morrison though that got the break through for the Eagles just before half time. A Palace free kick found its way to Morrison, who swivelled and blasted a shot past the Luton Town keeper.

After the break, Palace came out determined to increase their advantage. Butterfield feed a pass to Freedman, who managed to skillfully get into the box, before toe-poking a shot which was saved well by Marlon Beresford.

Leon Cort was next with a chance which again was saved well by Beresford.

Just when Palace were having their best spell of the match, disaster struck when Luton's Lewis Emmanuel put a cross into the Palace box and Mark Hudson managed to divert the ball past Gabor Kiraly, to gift Luton an equaliser.

Just after the restart, Luton were reduced to 10 men, when Richard Langley put a late challenge on Matt Lawerence, which resulted in the former Millwall player being carried off the pitch on a stretcher with suspected ligament damage. Dave Martin came on to replace Lawerence, and impressed on the left wing.

On 68 minutes Morrison scored his second of the match, when Freedman sent a ball into the box which was flicked on by Cort into the path of Morrison who excellently swept the ball into the back of the net from 6 yards out.

Two minutes later Scowcroft came close to making it three goals when he had a shot which was narrowly wide. The Eagles played out the remaining minutes to make it two wins in a row.

Crystal Palace 2

Morrison 45, 68

Luton Town 1

Hudson (o.g.) 55

Teams:

Crystal Palace: Kiraly, Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, Borrowdale, Kennedy, Fletcher, Soares, Freedman, Scowcroft, Morrison.

Subs: Speroni, Ward, Butterfield, Martin, Grabban.

Luton Town: Beresford, Foley, Keane, Barnett, Emanuel, Langley, Spring, Robinson, Bell, Runstrom, Talbot.

Subs: Brill, O'Leary, Boyd, Asafu-Adjaye, Morgan.

Referee: S Mathieson.

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