By Mark Ritson (Twitter @MR_LWMedia)
ADLENE Guedioura got 90 minutes under his belt for Crystal Palace's Development Squad on Tuesday night and he was delighted to score in a 3-1 victory.
Playing in his favoured position in central midfield alongside Hiram Boateng, the likes of Zeki Fryers and Dwight Gayle were also given game time against Brentford U21s.
After Kyle de Silva and Sullay Kaikai had given Palace a 2-0 lead at half-time, Brentford pulled a goal back before Guedioura made sure of the win with a brilliant finish.
"The manager (Neil Warnock) asked me to play to get some game time, I thought it was good to get 90 minutes under my belt," Guedioura told the Advertiser.
"It's good I can show I can play or to start and to show that I'm ready when he needs me.
"I played some minutes on Saturday but it wasn't a problem to play again. I will not complain when I can play games.
"Of course, I won't play every time (for the U21s) because I need to be focused on the first team matches, but it's good to play for the U21s.
"Maybe if it had been played on Monday, which they usually are, maybe it would have been different but I was happy to play 90 minutes.
"It's not bad for Gary Issott to call upon myself, Zeki and Dwight, we have good players available to start for him.
"It's good to have back-up. For me, it was to show I can play and available."
Palace dominated the first period and pinned the Bees back in their own half, but the visitors came out fighting in the second 45 and it looked like it could have been a game of two halves.
However, it took a moment of quality and brilliance from Guedioura to curl a beautiful effort into the far corner to ease any worries for the Eagles – and he hopes he can do the same for the first team soon.
"It was a good finish and I was happy with that," he said.
"Sometimes I try to take my chance and luckily this time it went in. I hope I can do the same for the first team, this is what I aim for.
"We tried to keep the ball, play out from the back and press Brentford high up from the start.
"When we got the ball we tried to play a bit, so it was good. In the second half we didn't start too nicely and they got a goal back.
"It's always dangerous when you're 2-0 up, as we saw at West Brom on Saturday. You have to score the third one or to keep the score at two.
"Luckily we got the third and made it safe."
