New boss Trevor Francis watched Palace crash to their fourth successive league defeat against in-form Burnley on Saturday and the Eagles showed little sign of halting their worrying slide down the table.

A terrible run of difficult fixtures and defeats has seen Palace drop to eighth position in Division One having been top in October but with Man City and Birmingham to come, it will probably get worse before it gets better.

Francis received a rapturous welcome from the 18,457 crowd at Selhurst Park on Saturday but it was assistant manager Steve Kember who picked the side, including Clinton Morrison after he recovered from a groin strain picked up at Coventry.

Palace started the match brightly with Tommy Black making the most of a rare start but they failed to capitalise on their early pressure.

On 23 minutes Matt Clarke punched weakly under pressure from Arthur Gnohere, the ball was headed back in and Ian Moore lobbed a back header into the net.

Worryingly for Palace, defensive indecision had cost them again and Clarke's was the only Palace challenge as the ball bobbed around the box.

But to the Eagles' credit they got back into the match with Dougie Freedman and Morrison working hard to close and break down the burly central defensive pairing of Gnohere and Ian Cox.

And five minutes before half-time they equalised when Simon Rodger's corner was cleared only as far as captain Dean Austin. He turned the ball back in and Morrison nodded home from inches out for his 15th goal of the season.

Palace started the second half as they had the first, playing the better football, and might have gone in front when Aki Riihilaahti's right-footed 35-yard pile driver hit the bar with Burnley's keeper stranded.

But Burnley were a determined side spurred on by the possibility of going top and on 63 minutes they went in front when Ian Moore crossed for Alan Moore to calmly slot home past Clarke from the edge of the box.

As much as Palace huffed and puffed, they could not break down the solid Burnley defence. Black wasted a late opportunity to cross but the Eagles lacked attacking inspiration with Jovan Kirovski particularly disappointing.

Afterwards Francis said: "We didn't deserve to lose on the balance of play."

But Palace certainly didn't deserve to win and unless he can immediately inspire some confidence in his squad, this unwanted run of defeats is likely to continue.

December 5, 2001 10:30