Burnley vs Crystal Palace match report: Eagles make hard work of brilliant comeback as Dwight Gayle inspires to keep Alan Pardew unbeaten

Burnley 2 Crystal Palace 3: Burnley tooka 2-0 lead through Mee and Ings but two goals from Gayle and a Jason Puncheon effort continued Pardew's 100% record

Dwight Gayle celebrates scoring the winner for Palace (Getty Images)

Crystal Palace’s new manager Alan Pardew had asked his players to rediscover the fighting spirit that saw them survive last season under Tony Pulis, but even he must have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly they took that message on board.

Palace were trailing 2-0 after 16 minutes, but as they did against Tottenham a week ago, they came from behind to win with Dwight Gayle and Jason Puncheon again their saviours. Gayle’s second of the game, five minutes from the end, completed the remarkable fightback. “Maybe I am giving different signals but the work we have done was very much offensive play and I felt we would score,” said Pardew. “So far it has started really well.”

Clarets defender Ben Mee headed home the second goal of his career from a 12th-minute Kieran Trippier corner. Three minutes later, Danny Ings doubled the lead as he collected a pass from Scott Arfield and coolly beat Julian Speroni.

Palace, with nothing to lose, reacted well. Wilfried Zaha, back in the starting line-up, came alive after switching flanks and from his driven cross, Gayle drove home his ninth goal of the season to end Palace’s near eight-hour wait for a goal away from home in the league.

Dwight Gayle scores the winner in the 3-2 victory over Burnley (Getty Images)

Three minutes into the second half Palace were level as Puncheon was allowed to run to within 25 yards of goal before shooting low into the corner.

Burnley almost regained the lead when Michael Keane’s volley was cleared off the line by James McArthur. But Gayle showed admirable composure from Puncheon’s pass to keep Palace’s revival going. “These are just just knocks and reminders,” lamented the Burnley manager Sean Dyche.

Line-ups:

Burnley (4-4-2): Heaton; Trippier, Keane, Shackell, Mee; Boyd (Sordell, 90), Marney, Jones (Wallace, 90), Arfield; Ings, Barnes (Vokes, 73).

Crystal Palace (4-4-2): Speroni; Ward, Dann, Delaney, Kelly (Mariappa, 83); Puncheon, McArthur, Ledley, Zaha (Guedioura, 70); Gayle, Sanogo (Murray, 79).

Referee: Phil Dowd

Man of the match: Jason Puncheon

Match rating: 8/10