July 17 2010

Selhurst Park

Crystal Palace lost 1-0 to Chelsea in their latest pre-season friendly.

The game was delayed by 15 minutes due to crowd congestion, and a big crowd it was as 21,345 packed into Selhurst Park to watch Palace's third pre-season match.

George Burley introduced a few more trialists into the starting line-up: Defenders Aleksandar Radosavljevic, Anthony Ouasfane and midfielder Davide Baiocco.

It was also Darren Ambrose's first match of the new season.

Chelsea named a fairly youthful side but did include Petr Cech, John Mikel Obi and Michael Essien, who has been out of action since December 2009.

It was Essien that had Chelsea's best chance in the first half when his shot hit the crossbar with Julian Speroni well beaten.

The Eagles did have their chances too, and Ambrose came close bagging a goal of his own, but put his header wide after a knock on by Andy Dorman.

In the second half Essien did score what proved to be the only goal.

Neat work from Josh McEachran and Dean Sturridge got the ball to the Ghanaian, and he slotted the ball home past Speroni.

Burley brought on Wilfried Zaha, Kieron Cadogan and Calvin Andrew to try and get an equaliser, and it was Andrew who should have done better with an effort which was hit straight at substitute goalkeeper Henrique Hilário.

Cadogan then had his own chance shortly after, but his effort was saved by the Portuguese keeper.

Palace were fortunate not to have conceded a penalty when Paddy McCarthy fouled former Eagles loanee Scott Sinclair, but the referee Iain Williamson adjudged it to have been outside the box. Sinclair then hit the resulting free kick over the bar.

Palace played some neat stuff at times and it was encouraging to see a lot of it played on the deck and not in the air.

Palace: Speroni, Wright, Radosavlijevic, Barrett, McCarthy, Ouasfane, Danns, Baiocco, Lee, Ambrose, Dorman

Subs: Price, Cadogan, Davis, Bridcutt, Morgan, N'Diaye, Zaha, Scannell