March 23 2010

Matt Lawrence

Ten-man Crystal Palace continued their woeful run with a 2-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest.

Palace got off to a bad start when Danny Butterfield hobbled off after five minutes with a hamstring injury. He was replaced by Sean Scannell with Johannes Ertl moving to right-back.

In a half of few clear-cut opportunities, Julian Speroni pushed Paul Anderson's long-range strike around a post and Robert Earnshaw shot into the side-netting.

Darren Ambrose then forced an excellent save out of Forest keeper Lee Camp from his powerful free-kick.

Forest took the lead in first half stoppage time after Wes Morgan fired a 25 yard shot past the out-stretched arms of Speroni.

Matt Lawrence was sent off for deliberate handball five minutes into the second half as he tried to stop Rob Earnshaw from scoring after misjudging the bounce.

Ambrose went close to getting a Palace equaliser but Camp made an oustanding block to deny the midfielder.

And the home side got the killer second goal on 82 minutes through substitute Nathan Tyson from a swift counter-attack.

The Eagles remain in the relegation zone as rivals Scunthorpe United beat Peterborough 4-0 and second-bottom Plymouth were 2-0 winners at Ipswich.

Forest: Camp, Chambers, Morgan, Wilson, Gunter, Anderson (McGoldrick 90), Moussi, Majewski (McCleary 74),Cohen, Earnshaw (Tyson 80), Blackstock.

Not Used: Smith, McGugan, Adebola, Boyd.

Palace: Speroni, Butterfield (Scannell 5), Lawrence, Hill, Hills, Danns, Derry, Ertl, Ambrose, Lee (Djilali 85), John (Andrew 80).

Not Used: Manns, N'Diaye, Comley, Cadogan.

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