PALACE 0

SAMSUNSPOR 2

As Terry Venables basked in the holiday sun, his Palace team toiled and faded in the same glorious summer sunshine at Selhurst Park on Sunday, writes OWEN PHILLIPS.

Though Venables has already expressed his reservations about Palace's Intertoto European adventure, Palace fielded an almost full strength side only to conspire to hand their Turkish visitors a two goal first leg advantage.

Despite the defeat first team coach Terry Fenwick said the Eagles were "totally committed" to the return leg in Turkey on Saturday. Unfort-unately commitment will probably not be enough. Palace were outclassed for long spells in the second half and the margin of victory could and should have been greater but for some poor finishing and a hopelessly skied late penalty.

Palace started brightly enough and threatened to take control with the lively Lombardo and sublime dribbling skills of Sasa Curcic wreaking havoc.

But from the moment a catastrophic collision between Kevin Miller and the otherwise impressive youngster Anthony Folan gifted Samsunspor their first goal in the 14th minute the result seemed inevitable. A deep cross tempted Miller out of his goal only for him to run straight into Folan allowing the ball to be nodded back for a simple far post tap in by Dagdelen.

Several mazy runs from Curcic apart, Palace struggled to break down their opponents and were staring defeat in the face when the visitors grabbed a weak second 11 minutes into the second half.

A needlessly conceded free-kick 25 yards out trickled into the wall but took a deflection took it past the already committed Miller.

All the pre-season and post World Cup optimism which attracted a bumper 11,758 crowd disappeared as the scoreline took on a familiar feel.

Terry Fenwick said: "We're very disappointed to lose the game 2-0 and it could have been more."

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