December 2 2011

McCarthy - unfortunate OG

An own goal by Paddy McCarthy cost Crystal Palace two points against Derby at Selhurst Park.

Dougie Freedman rested a number of the players who played in Wednesday night's match against Manchester United.

McCarthy was the only player to feature in both starting lineups this week.

Freedman gave Calvin Andrew a chance to impress on the wing, and partnered Glenn Murray with Chris Martin in attack.

The Eagles almost scored in the first minute of the game - Darren Ambrose's shot was deflected into the path of Murray who shot from 10 yards only to see it saved by Derby keeper Frank Fielding.

On 15 minutes Palace finally ended their barren run without a Championship goal (499 minutes to be exact).

Martin, on loan from Norwich, fired a shot from 25 yards which took a slight deflection, enough to evade Fielding and end up in the back of the net.

Derby had large spells of possession through out the first half but Palace held firm, and went into the break 1-0 up.

In the second half Derby had five corners in the space of 15 minutes, but failed to test Julian Speroni with a decent effort.

Freedman brought on Wilfried Zaha and Antonio Pedroza (for his debut), but on 75 minutes though Derby were level through a McCarthy own goal - Paul Green's teasing cross was intercepted by the Palace captain but he could only steer it into his own net.

Green almost won it for Derby at the end, but Speroni blocked his effort.

Today's results and scorers

2011/12 match reports

2011/12 squad stats

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