Kwesi Appiah scored a hat-trick on a sunny afternoon at the KNK Stadium as Crystal Palace closed the gap with Swansea to just a point in the Southern Division of the Under 21 Professional Development League 2.
The 24-year-old scored the opening goal of the game shortly after the three minute mark, continuing the Eagles’ recent early goal scoring in games at the KNK Stadium; he was found by Reise Allassani corner which drifted towards the back post where the striker was standing and unmarked he was able to get a chance in on goal from his head, he wasn’t going to miss and into the bottom corner it went.
The visitors put pressure on Palace straight from the restart and it only took two minutes for them to find a reply as with one of their first real opportunities, Jake Skelton diverted a shot that was curling wide of the post into the back of the net and past Eagles goalkeeper Chris Kettings who couldn’t react in time to prevent the equaliser.
A third goal looked imminent after the quick start to the game and that was proved right shortly after the Leeds reply as the scorer of the opening goal got his foot to the ball again, as after Appiah was put through on goal by outfavoured Irish midfielder Owen Garvan, the striker managed to get a shot away whilst under pressure from a number of defenders, calmly putting the ball past Eric Grimes for a second time in the opening eight minutes of the game.
Play resumed to it’s normal expectancy after the goalfest with both teams having a fair amount of chances on goal whilst trading possession in the middle of the park for the remainder of the first half, with Stokes who had been looking to break through the Eagles defence on a number of occasions having the best chance before half-time has he curled a shot towards Kettings who parried it away for a corner, leaving the Eagles’ lead intact at the break.
It didn’t take long for Palace’s Ghana international to seal his hat-trick as four minutes after the break, he found himself running onto another through ball supplied by his teammate Garvan from further up the pitch and with the defenders giving him more space than the earlier goal, he managed to pick his spot before completing his rout as the ball found the back of the net.
Allassani secured the win for Issott’s side ten minutes later when he tapped the ball into Grimes’ net after he was found by Kyle de Silva who passed the ball through to the 19-year-old allowing him to grab all three points for Crystal Palace.
It wasn’t to finish there though as the visitors pulled a goal back through Luke Parkin who snuck past the Palace defence after receiving Tom Lyman’s ball that was knocked through before slotting the ball home, past Kettings. The Eagles were given a penalty after Allasssani was fouled in the area but unfortunately, Connor Dymond couldn’t restore the three goal cushion as Grimes pushed away his powerful penalty.
Crystal Palace face Barnsley, away from home next Monday and will be looking to mount pressure on Swansea.
