Crystal Palace Under-23s earned a hard-fought victory over league-leaders Ipswich Town today at Copers Cope in a thrilling battle between first and second place.
The game began at a high tempo and Palace saw its first chance show its face when, having driven down the Eagles' left-wing, newly signed first-team midfielder Bakary Sako whipped a low ball across the edge of the penalty box to Kian Flanagan who looked likely to score, though he was crowded out by the opposition defence.
With the game's opening exchanges occurring at a fast pace, Ipswich responded when Barry Cotter had time on the right-wing to put in a testing cross which had to be nodded out of play by Palace's Nikola Tavares.