Leicester City 1 Crystal Palace 0: Hayles halts Palace's run
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Your support makes all the difference.An 89th-minute goal by veteran Leicester striker Barry Hayles dashed Neil Warnock's hopes of reaching a milestone. The defeat ended Palace's unbeaten run of 15 matches, one short of a personal best for the former Sheffield United chief in a 21-year career in management.
Palace's Clinton Morrison had a score ruled out for offside and a scruffy contest on a pudding of a pitch looked destined to end goalless until a low cross by Leicester's Matt Oakley evaded substitute DJ Campbell before looping in off the shin of 35-year-old Hayles, claiming his second goal for Leicester since moving from Plymouth earlier this month.
The first side to lower Palace's colours since Watford in October, Leicester climb five places to 15th, precisely where they were when Ian Holloway took over as manager in November. Given that Palace were 20th then, Warnock can take consolation from the progress Palace have made.
But Warnock was disappointed. "It took a goal the lad didn't know much about to win the game and I didn't think we deserved it," he said. Holloway took the opposite view. "It's no fluke that when you work that hard you get results," he said. The best chance of a poor first half fell to Palace, for whom James Scowcroft headed wide from a outswinging corner by Ben Watson, who later almost surprised the Leicester goalkeeper with one swung in. Mark Hudson could have put Palace in front just before half-time but his lob from the edge of the box cleared the bar.
It seemed scarcely possible the second half could be as poor and when Iain Hume's curling free kick crept just the wrong side of Julian Speroni's left-hand post there was a promise that the quality might improve. The contest soon settled back into its messy pattern, however. It seemed it would take only one goal to claim the spoils. Morrison thought he had it, after 64 minutes, when he turned home Shaun Derry's miscued effort but was offside.
Leicester City (4-4-2): Alnwick; Stearman (N'Gotty, 62), Kisnorbo, McAuley, Mattock; Hume (Campbell, 76), Oakley, Clemence, Laczko (Bori, 76); Hayles, Howard. Substitutes not used: Wesolowski, Fryatt.
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Speroni; Halls, Lawrence, Hudson, Hill; Soares, Derry, Watson; Scanell (Kuqi, 77), Scowcroft, Morrison. Substitutes not used: Hills, Fletcher, Butterfield, Moses.
Referee: E Ilderton (Tyne and Wear).
Holloway: Late victory
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