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MOTD- Crystal Palace 3-1 Sunderland

By on August 31, 2013

Crystal Palace deservedly grabbed their first points of the Premier League season against a ten-man Sunderland at Selhurst Park with Ian Holloway’s side bouncing back from a 1-1 scoreline to win 3-2. Paolo Di Canio’s side visited Selurst Park hoping and perhaps expecting the full three points, but John O’Shea’s sending off turned the tides of the match and allowed Palace to grab two late goals.

The Eagles began the math dominantly, and they amazingly found themselves in front after only eight minutes when a Palace corner hit the leg of O’Shea. It bounced to Danny Gabbidon, who without knowing much about it hit the ball into the back of the net.

Sunderland responded brightly to the goal, with Conner Wickham seeing his low shot blocked by Palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni in the thirty-second minute. Sunderland, sporting their neon yellow away kit, continued to assert their control but almost went down 2-0 on a Palace counter-attack just before the end of the first half. Jason Puncheon played a diagonal long ball to Jose Campana, who curled a long-ranged effort just wide of goal, but could not find the net.

Palace should have done better with the chance as they were forced to sit deep as the match rolled on to the second half, while their opponents were rewarded for their hard work in the sixty-fourth minute through Steven Fletcher. Sebastian Larsson slipped Jack Coleback through down the left and the starlet swung an inviting ball into the area, which Fletcher sent into the bottom of the near corner of the net via a towering header from eight yards.

Although Sunderland looked set to go on and win the match things went totally wrong for Di Canio only minutes later as O’Shea desperately hacked down Dwight Gayle in the Sunderland penalty area after he failed to clear a Chamakh cross. O’Shea was shown the red card, and although Gayle hit the following penalty poorly, only slightly to the left, it crept it’s was in and Palace regained the lead.

The home side then gained complete control of the match, with Puncheon smashing a volley straight into the hands of Sunderland goalkeeper Keiren Westwood in the eighty-sixth minute. Palace kept possession in the final moments as it looked to have ended 2-1, but the newly promoted side put the icing on the cake in their first win of the season deep into stoppage time. Puncheon diddled around the Sunderland area before eventually losing the ball, which fell to Stuart O’Keefe, who sent a stunning left-footed curler into the top corner from the edge of the area to win the match for his side.
Man of the Match: Jason Puncheon

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.