CRYSTAL Palace slumped to a 3-0 defeat to League One side Crawley Town in a pre-season friendly this afternoon.
Despite dominating the first half, the Eagles found themselves a goal at the break thanks to Billy Clarke's opener before a number of changes were made by boss Ian Holloway.
Crawley grabbed a second against a younger-looking Palace side in the second period thanks to Sergio Torres, who headed home after a fine stop from substitute goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons.
And Matt Sadler scored the third in the final moments with a thunderous volley at the back post unmarked.
The Eagles were very close to opening the scoring early on when Jose Campana's corner was met by the head of Damien Delaney, who his effort flash across goal and inches wide of the target.
Crawley's Billy Clarke fired a shot at Julian Speroni's goal soon after, and the custodian needed a second bite of the cherry to collect the ball on the slippery playing surface.
Stephen Dobbie was inches from giving Palace the lead after 16 minutes when his curling free-kick from the edge of box went over the crossbar.
Aaron Wilbraham tested Crawley goalkeeper Paul Jones with a low effort soon after, while Thomas should have given the Eagles the lead when he found himself bearing down on goal but his effort was superbly stopped by Jones.
However, against the run of play Crawley took the lead on 27 minutes when Gary Alexander got in behind the Palace defence, drove the ball across goal and it fell kindly to Peter Clarke to fire home on the wet surface.
And there was nearly a second for the hosts two minutes later when Josh Simpson burst through the middle and forced a stunning save from Julian Speroni.
Wilbraham saw a header go wide from Joel Ward's cross as Palace looked for an instant response while Mile Jedinak went very close with a deflected effort past the post.
Simpson also fired another warning to Palace when he sent a stunning volley just over Speroni's crossbar from the edge of the box.
Palace made a number of changes at the break, with Jonny Williams, Peter Ramage, Yannick Bolasie and Kevin Phillips coming on alongside an unknown trialist and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.
And the unknown player won Palace a free-kick early into the second period, which Jedinak curled just wide of the post.
Owusu-Abeyie saw a free-kick go around the Crawley wall midway through the second half but unfortunately it was the wrong side of the most, while he volley straight at Jones soon after.
Phillips went close to grabbing an equaliser moments later when he got on the end of a flowing move but his volley sailed over the crossbar.
Williams, Phillips and the trialist linked up well through the middle after 75 minutes, with the latter thwarted at the last minute just as he was about to shoot inside the box.
However, Crawley wrapped up the win with two minutes remaining when Matt Sadler found himself unmarked at the back post to fire past Fitzsimons.
Palace travel to Irish side Waterford next Saturday.
Palace: Speroni (Fitzsimons 62), Ward (Taylor 62), Moxey (Jerome Williams 62), Gabbidon (Ramage 46), Delaney (Wynter 62), Jedinak (O'Keefe 62), Campana (Williams 46), Dobbie (Bolasie 46), Thomas (Owusu-Abeyie 46), Gayle (Phillips 46), Wilbraham (Trialist 46).
Crawley Town: Jones, Hurst, Sadler, Connolly, Walsh, Drury, Clarke, Torres, Bulman, Simpson, Alexander.
Attendance: 3,109 (1,735 Palace)By Croydon Advertiser Sports Reporter Mark Ritson
