July 21 2010

Ambrose: with a brace

Crystal Palace's first match on their West Country trip ended in a 3-3 draw against Dorchester Town.

George Burley took the chance to play two more trialists in the starting lineup, and opted to play Alassane N'Diaye at right back.

Palace started the game very sluggishly and were two down within 30 minutes, courtesy of goals by Stuart Douglas and Kevin Hill.

However on 42 minutes Darren Ambrose made the score 2-1 with a great shot from 25 yards.

Palace made three substitutions at the break with Lewis Price, Wilfried Zaha and Claude Davis replacing Julian Speroni, Alan Lee, and Adam Barratt.

On 57 minutes Ambrose got on the scoresheet again with strong shot from inside the box, to make it 2-2.

It only took Dorchester just 6 minutes though to take the lead again. Poor defending by N'Diaye allowed Mark Jermyn to cross a delightful ball into the path of Nathan Walker who swept the ball home from 8 yards out.

Palace made further changes on 64 minutes: Kieron Cadogan on for Calvin Andrew, and trialist "Jerry" on for Andy Dorman.

A few minutes later and it was 3-3. Neat work from Cadogan allowed Zaha to score his first goal for the first team.

Youngsters Jack Holland and Kieran Djilali came on the final 15 minutes, but couldn't help Palace to a winning goal and the match ended 3-3.

Palace play their second of two West County games against Exeter on Friday night.

Palace: Speroni (Price, 46), N'Diaye (Holland, 70), Barratt (Davis, 46), McCarthy, Branco, Ambrose, Danns, Dorman (Jerry, 64), Ty (Djilali, 75), Andrew (Cadogan, 64), Lee (Zaha, 46)