The under-21’s continued their form of mixed results on Tuesday afternoon as they fell to a late surprising defeat at Brentford after remarkably being on level terms with seven minutes remaining in the second half.
A trialist, Keshi Anderson shocked the visitors with a six minute hat-trick in the last six minutes to hand Palace their second consecutive defeat and the home side a result to look forward on with the Bees struggling towards foot of the table.
Brentford started the better side with a number of shots heading towards Crystal Palace goalkeeper David Gregory in the early stages of the game with a former Eagles youngster, Jermaine Udumaga being the first player to test the keeper.
It wasn’t long before Gregory was caught out as Sam Saunders hit a 50 yard free-kick into the back of the net past the Palace goalkeeper but to save embarrassment, the wonderfully struck goal was ruled out as the ball wasn’t dead when it was hit by the midfielder.
Crystal Palace started to build with confidence after the disallowed goal with first of all Ryan Inniss going close with a header before Morgan Ferrier hitting a shot wide, failing to bring the Brentford goalkeeper Richard Lee into action.
Before half-time Kyle De Silva forced Lee into a save, looking to build on his recent good performances in Palace colours but failed to make the most of the opportunity; Saunders had another free-kicked saved with Gregory also denying the midfielder again before Udumaga shot wide.
In the second half, chances for the hosts were still a threat to the Palace goal as the Bees continued to hold the upper hand in the game with the first chance of the half being a free-kick from Charlie Adams which was saved by Gregory.
Palace had a few opportunities of their own in the second half as against the run of play after Luarent went close for Brentford, Allassani found space further up the field which he rant into before striking his shot against the woodwork on the side of the goal-frame.
Allassani remained a threat in the second half, being tackled by Adams to deny the attacking player another attempt on goal whilst at the other end of the pitch the defending player turned attacking, having an effort blocked before Udumaga headed over for the Bees.
The next six minutes would stun all watching, in particular Garry Issott as on 83 minutes Nico Yennaris found substitute Anderson hit a right-footed hot that flicked off Inniss, striking the crossbar and ending up in the back of the net past the Palace goalkeeper.
After the opening goal, Palace piled on the pressure in an attempt to get back level with time against them, leaving the side vulnerable in defence and after a counter-attack from the Bees, Anderson scored a second for the hosts with a volley after Gregory made a save from an Udumaga shot.
It was only a minute later that Anderson completed his six minute hat-trick when he headed a ball past Gregory for a final time after a cross from Josh Clarke.
Crystal Palace face Millwall next on Tuesday at 1pm at Tooting & Mitcham’s KNK Stadium with updates available from us on Twitter.
