That’s it for today’s blog. I’ll leave you with Ed Aarons’ report from the Amex Stadium. Bye!
Grahan Potter speaks “It’s a sore one for us. We did a lot well in the game, made chances and were the better team before they scored. That’s football; you have to put the ball in the net. I feel for the boys. We have to dust ourselves down and focus on what we’ve done well.”
There’s more relegation action to come at 3pm, with Bournemouth, Southampton and West Ham all in action. Join Scott Murray for all the latest news.
Full time: Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace
Peep peep! Palace move up to 12th – and, more importantly, 12 points clear of the bottom three – with a hard-fought victory in the M23 derby. Jordan Ayew scored the only goal with 20 minutes remaining. Palace are surely safe now. Brighton, who have some very tough games coming up, are in a rare old relegation dogfight.
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90+3 min: Zaha misses an open goal! That was a comedy of errors. Tosun ran clear from inside his own half, all the way to the edge of the Brighton penalty area. He tried to go round Guaita but overran the ball absurdly. Zaha, who was alongside him all the way, kept running and poked the ball against the outside of the post from a tight angle.
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90+2 min Brighton appeal for a penalty when van Aanholt tackles Alzate in the area. At first it looked a good challenge, but on reflection I’m not sure he got the ball. VAR isn’t interested anyway. I’d like to see that again.
90+1 min ... and Tosun will head it away at the near post. Poor delivery.
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90+1 min Corner to Brighton on the left. Mooy will take it...
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90 min Three added minutes.
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89 min A weak 20-yard shot from Jahanbakhsh goes well wide.
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87 min Palace break two against two. Benteke tries to play it through to Zaha, who is matched for speed by Burn. That’s Benteke’s last contribution: he is replaced by Cenk Tosun.
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86 min Brighton are struggling to put Palace under any pressure. They’ve been poor since going behind.
84 min van Aanholt’s corner is cleared at the near post.
83 min van Aanholt combines well with Ayew to win a corner for Palace. That leads to another corner, this time on the right...
82 min Brighton make their final change, with the Colombian international Steven Alzate replacing Yves Bissouma.
80 min The underlapping Burn wins a corner for Brighton. Mooy’s corner leads to a game of head tennis until Propper’s excellent volley from the edge of the area is blocked. Then Mooy’s long-range curler is headed behindby van Aanholt. I think it was going wide anyway. The second corner comes to nothing.
79 min “Not strictly speaking a football question, Rob,” writes Adrian Delatouche, “but has anyone tried oat yoghurt?”
Not now mate I’m drinking a cow.
78 min Alireza Jahanbakhsh replaces Martin Montoya for Brighton.
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76 min If Brighton lose this, they are in trouble. Their next seven league games are Wolves (A), Arsenal (H), Leicester (A), Man Utd (H), Norwich (A), Liverpool (H) and Man City (H).
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72 min Benteke has played admirably today. He’s in awful form, certainly in front of goal, and a lot of players hide from the ball in that situation. Yet he has wanted it all the time, even after that ugly early miss, and his courage has been rewarded.
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Well I never. A long goalkick was collected by Benteke, who moseyed infield from the left wing and played a superb reverse pass to put Ayew clear on the left side of the area. He opened his body and slid a low first-time shot that went through Ryan and into the net.
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GOAL! Brighton 0-1 Palace (Ayew 70)
Palace have stolen the lead on the break!
70 min Mooy’s deflected shot from 25 yards is easily saved by Guaita.
69 min Maupay turns neatly inside Ward on the left of the area - but then he shoots straight at Guaita. There have been a lot of buts in today’s MBM: good play but crap finish, that sort of thing.
66 min That’s March’s last touch: Glenn Murray, 97, has come on to replace him. He knows how to score a goal.
65 min March nutmegs van Aanholt and slides a low cross into the area. It’s intercepted by the sliding Riedewald - but the ball comes back to March, who takes it down and spanks a half-volley over the bar.
64 min Anyone out there?
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63 min A dodgy backpass from March goes straight to Benteke, whose toepoke is blocked at close range by Ryan. It wasn’t the most confident attempt, though Ryan narrowed the angle well.
63 min “Full disclosure, however, sounds like an excellent thriller,” says Ian Copestake. “Perhaps one not with Liam Neeson.”
62 min This is a decent spell for Brighton. Mooy finds a rare bit of space, 25 yards from goal, but drags a low shot wide of the near post.
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59 min: Chance for Palace! van Aanholt’s corner from the right is headed wide by Benteke at the near post. He did well to get above the defenders on the six-yard line but mistimed his connection completely. In many ways that was a better chance than the volley in the first half.
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57 min Montoya is booked for running over Zaha.
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55 min: Maupay misses another chance! Riedewald’s sliding tackle on Mooy accidentally diverted the ball over Cahill and into the path of Maupay, 13 yards from goal. The ball sat up beautifully for him to lash first time towards goal, but he hit it straight at Guaita.
53 min Trossard’s imaginative curler from the left edge of the area drifts just wide of the far post, with Guaita scrambling across his line. He looks a very classy footballer. Brighton, who started very nervously, have been the better side for the last half hour or so.
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51 min The hail has stopped, by the way, and the sun is out again. Maupay runs at the Palace defence, reaching the edge of the area before being challenged. The ball ricochets to Trossard, whose first touch is poor.
48 min: Maupay clears off the line ... for Palace! Mooy’s corner from the left was thumped towards goal by the head of Dunk on the six-yard line. Guaita was beaten but the ball hit Maupay on the line, flattening him in the process.
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47 min Mooy turns on the halfway line and clips a good ball over the top to Maupay. He takes too long waiting for the ball to drop, however, and Dann gets back to put the ball behind for a corner.
46 min Peep peep! Brighton begin the second half. Palace have made a change, with Jairo Riedewald replacing the injured James McCarthy.
“A day that only rolls around once every four years?” says Matt Dony. “Sounds perfect for a Benteke goal...”
But it’s not 23 April?
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“You may not have seen any goals yet but I have,” says J.R. “That’s because I’m watching Hull v Leeds. Not only did I see a goal but I saw Luke Ayling do the Kevin Nolan chicken dance. Here in the U.S., ESPN shows several games a week from the non-VAR leagues. I was looking at the schedule for tomorrow and at 5:55 AM they have listed ‘Coventry Town v Sunderland’. Oh, ESPN! At least they’re trying, I guess.”
Half-time reading
Half time: Brighton 0-0 Palace
Peep peep! Both sides missed good chances in a fairly scruffy half, the most notable event of which was Wilfried Zaha’s run-in with the Brighton substitite Ezequiel Schelotto. The first half started in sunshine; it has ended amid a hailstorm. See you in 15 minutes for more weather news.
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45 min Lovely play from Benteke, who dances past a couple of players on the left side of the box and cracks a shot that is very well blocked by Webster. McCarthy’s deep corner is met by Cahill, whose heads hit the back of Burn.
43 min March shoots straight at Guaita from long range.
If only it wasn't a leap year, maybe March would have scored? Apologies
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) February 29, 2020
39 min While Webster is treated, the substitute Schelotto starts sledging Zaha, who asks the referee what’s what. When the corner is taken, Gary Cahill’s downward header at the far post bounces just over the bar. At first it looked like a bad miss - he was only six yards out - but he had to clamber over a defender to get to the ball, which is why his header went straight into the ground.
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36 min Zaha goes on a weaving run and hits a shot that is blocked. Just before that, Webster jumped into Benteke’s elbow, prompting a VAR review. Benteke is cleared by VAR. I don’t think he did much wrong there, even though Webster is now being treated for a burst mooth.
35 min: March misses a great chance! It was a lovely move from Brighton. Maupay received a pass on the halfway line, turned and played a fine angled pass to Trossard on the left. He flicked a beautiful low cross with the outside of the right foot to find the unmarked March at the far post, but he pulled his first-time shot into the side netting. He should have scored.
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33 min Benteke is booked for a late challenge on Dunk.
33 min March cuts infield from the right and hits a low shot that is comfortably saved at the near post by the sprawling Guaita.
32 min Brighton continue to dominate possession, but it’s all a little slow and sterile. The pitch doesn’t help.
30 min Schelotto kicked the ball at Zaha, that’s why he was booked. Zaha spat in the general direction of the Brighton subs, though the replays don’t show how close they were. Presumably not very close, or he’d have been in trouble. His body language was fairly provocative, mind you.
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29 min Zaha is booed as he goes on a long, winding run down the left. Propper dispossesses him to great cheers.
27 min Hello! Zaha is getting involved with one of the Brighton substitutes, Schelotto. I’m not sure what happened there, although replays showed Zaha spitting and putting his hands to his ears in front of the Brighton fans. Schelotto is booked, Zaha is not.
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26 min Full disclosure: this isn’t a thriller.
23 min Another Mooy corner leads to a bit of a scramble in the Palace six-yard box. Eventually Dunk’s looping header - which I’m pretty sure was going just wide anyway - is headed clear by the leaping van Aanholt.
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21 min This is a much better spell for Brighton, who have Palace pinned back in their half.
19 min Mooy’s corner from the left leads to a scramble in the six-yard box, with Guaita eventually flapping the ball away from the stretching Dunk. Moments later, March’s driven cross-shot is comfortably held by the diving Guaita.
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18 min Brighton win their first corner. March’s inswinger from the right is nutted away at the near post by Benteke. Brighton win the ball back through Montoya, whose tackle on the halfway line turns into a good pass to Maupay on the left of the area. He sidefoots a disguised shot to the near post, where Guaita gets down to palm the ball away.
14 min There are a few nerves around the ground, and Palace look the more relaxed, purposeful side.
12 min Brighton have have two thirds of the possession so far; Palace have had three thirds of the chances.
10 min: Another chance for Palace! Cahill’s angled free-kick from the halfway line was won in the air emphatically by Benteke on the edge of the area. He headed it down to Kouyate, whose close-range poke was blocked by Ryan.
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9 min Zaha has his first run at Burn, who does well to stay with him and make an important interception.
7 min There have been a few strong tackles in midfield, from Brighton in particular, though nothing excessive. Yet.
4 min: Benteke misses an excellent chance! McArthur moves confidently through midfield and clips a fine pass over the top. Benteke gets behind the defence, watches the ball all the way ... and then shins it miles wide. The home fans loved that. In his defence, it was an awkward ball to volley as it came over his shoulder, but that was still a bit of blooper gold.
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4 min Maupay has the first shot on goal, a scuffed drive on the turn from just inside the area. It dribbles wide of the near pst.
3 min In fact, the pitch looks terrible by modern standards, really uneven and slow.
2 min You’d expect Brighton to dominate possession, and the match has started that way. The pitch doesn’t look in perfect condition, mind.
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1 min Peep peep! We’re underway. Brighton are in blue and white stripes; Palace are wearing their black away strip.
“The police are out in force at the Amex today, mostly standing around and blocking routes as we all try to get to the stadium,” writes my colleague Steph Fincham. “You might remember they claimed to find knives and knuckledusters on Palace fans a couple of years ago, though later admitted they were lying. Anyway, the sun is shining.”
I love unlikely rivalries. Gillingham v Swindon was all we ever used to talk about at school.
‘A display of uncontrolled manic aggression’
This, from Simon Burnton, is a cracking read on the origins of the Brighton/Palace rivalry.
The return fixture at Selhurst Park, just before Christmas, ended 1-1. Wilfried Zaha was on one that night, as he often is against Brighton.
Pre-match reading
Team news
Brighton (4-2-3-1) Ryan; Montoya, Dunk, Webster, Burn; Propper, Bissouma; Trossard, Mooy, March; Maupay.
Substitutes: Button, Schelotto, Stephens, Gross, Jahanbakhsh, Murray, Alzate.
Crystal Palace (4-1-4-1) Guaita; Ward, Dann, Cahill, van Aanholt; McCarthy; Ayew, Kouyate, McArthur, Zaha; Benteke.
Substitutes: Hennessey, Kelly, Milivojevic, Meyer, Townsend, Riedewald, Tosun.
Referee Martin Atkinson.
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Brighton v Crystal Palace from the Amex Stadium. These two have developed an unlikely rivalry in the last 44 years, one fuelled fuelled by boiling coffee, loose change, loose talk and even looser bowels (it was the coach driver, by the way).
A fixture that was dormant for a long time has been revived in the last decade by Brighton’s improvement. There was the in/famous Championship play-off semi-final of 2013, won by Palace. Brighton were eventually promoted to the Premier League four years later, which has meant regular top-flight meetings between the teams for the first time since Crystal Palace’s Team of the Eighties were relegated in 1981. (By the way, if you haven’t seen the BT Sport documentary on that team, it’s massively enjoyable.)
This year it’s Brighton who are worried about relegation. Although they have done many good things under the impressive Graham Potter, they haven’t won a game this year and are only four points off the bottom three. They need points now, because six of their next seven games are against the Premier League elite. (We’re including Wolves and Arsenal in that, though you may disagree, and that’s just fine.)
Palace should be okay. No Premier League side has scored fewer goals this season, but their outstanding defence – easily the best in the bottom half of the table – has kept them out of trouble until now. Their win over Newcastle last weekend ended a long winless run and moved them nine points clear of the bottom three. Don’t be surprised if it kicks off a bit later as well.
Kick off is at 12.30pm.
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