It was smash and grab for the Eagles this afternoon as they triumphed over Queens Park Rangers’ U21s side, beating them 7-2 at the KNK Stadium.
After their Christmas break and a defeat away to Cardiff before then, Gary Issott’s side were keen to make a bright start to the second part of the season and with Crystal Palace Co-Chairman Steve Parish in the stands watching over the side they put on a very strong performance that could also be swept with the same brush that is the Pardew affect.
The Eagles eased themselves into the game early on and their objectives were clear from the outset despite the weather contributing to early mistakes by either side but that excuse was thrown out of the window by Palace as in the 12th minute QPR goalkeeper Aaron Lennox allowed a cross from Reise Allassani slip underneath him, reaching team-mate Morgan Ferrier who tapped the ball into the back of the net.
Five minutes later, Allassani was starting to create headlines as after Sonny Black headed the ball into the path of the attacker, after a cross from Kyle De Silva, the creator of the first goal scored one of his own as he slipped the ball past Lennox to make it 2-0 to Palace.
That scoreline wasn’t enough for their first-half efforts as after a first half of domination, de Silva added his name to the goal tally as after Issott’s side were awarded a free-kick outside of the area, the midfielder slotted the resulting ball past Lennox – leaving the Rangers keeper picking the ball out from the back of his net for a third time.
Lennox would have been hopeful for a quieter second half in-front of his goal but that wasn’t to be as the team-talk at half time managed to inspire the Palace side to even more goals as straight from the restart, Ferrier added to his opening goal by lifting the ball over the keeper.
It didn’t stop just their for the striker either as yet again from the subsequent restart, Palace regained possession and through Allassani who had scored a goal already for the home side and created the first goal for Ferrier, he did the same again; the 18-year-old allowed the hat-trick chasing player to do exactly that as the former Arsenal academy player rolled the ball into the back of the net for his third goal of the afternoon and second within a minute.
The visitors managed to pull a goal back through Reece Grego-Cox who managed to get into the area, past a number of defenders where he then fired it past Palace goalkeeper David Gregory.
Palace managed to restore their leisurely goal cushion on 51 minutes as de Silva added a second goal to his name on what was a good afternoon for the U21s; the winger capitalised on the holes left in the defence, finding the net for the sixth goal of the afternoon.
With the minutes counting down on the clock, Jake Gray was the next player to step up in-front of Lennox and offer him a challenge as after a mistake was made by the Hoops’ defence allowed the youngster to power through into the area and head round the goalkeeper before putting it into the back of the net.
Ossie Kakay reduced the deficit for QPR a minute before time, finding the bottom corner from the edge of the area past Gregory.
That result moved Crystal Palace up to fourth in the table in the southern division with games in hand on QPR and Swansea who are also in the top four.
