Black double does trick for 10-man Palace
Crystal Palace 2 Oldham Athletic
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Your support makes all the difference.Tommy Black scored twice to give 10-man Crystal Palace a 2-0 victory over Oldham Athletic and send them into the quarter-finals of the Worthington Cup last night.
A header and a well-measured finish from Black for his first goals of the campaign ensured an end to the Second Division side's run in this competition.
Yet Palace's passage was achieved with perspiration rather than inspiration. In added time in the first half, the First Division side were 1-0 up and seemingly cruising when Danny Granville lunged at Michael Clegg and was shown a straight red card.
"It was a shock," Palace's manager, Trevor Francis, admitted. "There was certainly no intent on Danny's part to injure the player, but, if he did go in two-footed, then he had to go."
At that stage, the Latics, forced to shuffle from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 after Clint Hill went off with a broken leg, looked a beaten side, as Palace found their rhythm and their goalkeeper Alex Kolinko dealt confidently with Oldham's string of high balls.
Dele Adebola had already gone close when Black gave the Eagles the lead in the 11th minute. Granville found space wide on left, and Black was unmarked at the far post to loop his header over Les Pogliacomi and register his first goal of the season.
"Some of our passing and movement in the first half was great to watch," Francis said. "It was a shame we had to change it, but we were dogged in the second half, and I was very pleased with what were two very different performances."
Francis reacted to the sending-off by withdrawing Gareth Williams to bolster his midfield with Gary Borrowdale, relying on the lively Black to get forward and support Adebola. Francis is often accused of lacking tactical nous, but this time the switch worked perfectly. Oldham barely had a chance. "We didn't perform anywhere near as well as we can," their manager, Iain Dowie, said. "There was no invention, no rotation and no interplay."
Black, who is out of contract at the end of the season, had already created one-on-one chances for Adebola and Danny Butterfield when, with 16 minutes remaining, he raced on to Adebola's reverse ball and hammered the ball across Pogliacomi and inside the far post to cap a fine personal performance.
"Contracts are the chairman's realm," Francis said. "But he is not a player I would like to lose. He's bright, he's inventive, and the only reason I took him off with a minute to go was to allow him to take the applause he deserved."
Crystal Palace (5-3-2): Kolinko; Granville, Butterfield, Powell, Symons (Antwi, 90), Popovic; Mullins, Riihilahti, Black (Hunt, 90); Williams (Borrowdale, h-t) Adebola. Substitutes not used: R Smith, Michopoulos (gk).
Oldham Athletic (3-5-2): Pogliacomi; Beharall, Hill (Andrews, 17), Hall; Clegg (Lourenco Da Silva, 66), Armstrong, D Sheridan, Baudet, Eyres; Killen, Wijnhard (Corazzin, 76). Substitutes not used: Duxbury, Miskelly (gk).
Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).
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