Brighton 2 v 3 Palace

Coca-Cola Championship

CRYSTAL Palace avenged last month's defeat against arch-rivals Brighton thanks to a last-gasp decider in a five goal thriller on the south coast, writes Tim Ashton.

A brace from Dougie Freedman which saw the striker rack up his 100th goal for the club cancelled out a double from Seagulls' Leon Knight.

Brighton's Gary Hart was dismissed in the 87th minute for two bookable offences before supersub Jobi McAnuff scored the winner in the third minute of injury time.

Amazingly this was Palace's first away win at Brighton since 1963.

The three points moves the Eagles up to ninth in the Championship table although they still have at least two games in hand on the teams above them.

Iain Dowie said: "There was big disappointment following our last meeting at Selhurst Park and we all knew it was important we reacted in the right way.

"I thought today was a much more even contest than our previous match and in terms of chances created we probably edged it.

"Even though Brighton are in the bottom three they have good players and we knew we would be facing a side who compete 100 per cent.

"Their first goal was conceded in a bad way from our point of view and it gave them the lift they needed which in turn gave them the desire to hang on but we came back in good fashion.

"Once we got back on level terms we created more chances and with a better final ball at times we may have got ourselves ahead.

"It was great for Dougie to get his 100th goal for the club and he is in a great run of form.

"I see what he is capable of every day in training and at the moment he is transferring it into match situations and using his talent to ask defenders questions.

"With a couple of forwards currently injured both Dougie and Clinton Morrison have come in and done really well for us as a partnership.

"From the bench Jobi came on and got the vital strike and it is good to see him take his chance.

"He has had to be very patient since his injury because Michael Hughes and Marco Reich have done really well but he came on and the goal will really help him.

"Brighton went down to 10 men and even though we don't like to see players sent off it could have been worse.

"Their keeper came out of his box and handled which meant the referee had a decision to make but our side were telling him not to send the keeper off and this is the type of lads I have working for me.

"At the end of the day it was deliberate handball outside his area and so a booking was right.

"After the recent break we now have a busy spell coming up and a few wins could certainly see us making a big impact on the league table."

The match was played in a fervent atmosphere and Palace could have broken the deadlock first but Morrison headed a Ben Watson corner too high and then Watson himself dragged a shot wide.

Brighton took the lead on 24 minutes when Knight slid onto a low cross from Alexandre Frutos.

Moments later Palace were level when Reich and Morrison combined to set up Freedman with a header and his momentous 100th Palace goal.

The second half started in the worst possible way for Palace when Gary Borrowdale was adjudged to have pushed Jake Robinson in the penalty area and the referee pointed to the spot from which Knight scored his second.

Again it was only a matter of minutes before Palace were level and again Freedman was the marksman on song.

He benefitted from good work by Reich before beating two defenders and burying his shot.

Both sides pushed for the win and former Millwall defender Darren Ward saw his volley from Watson's corner sail over and Knight's shot was parried by Kiraly and deflected wide.

After the fourth official signalled four extra minutes McAnuff collected Morrison's pass and fired the winner low into the corner of the net from the edge of the box for the Eagles third away win of the season.

Palace: Kiraly; Ward; Boyce; Borrowdale (Hudson, 90); F Hall; Watson(Andrews, 78); Hughes; Soares; Reich (McAnuff, 62); Freedman; Morrison.

Subs not used: Black; Speroni.

Att: 7,273.