Crystal Palace 3-1 Wolves
McCarthy would not have been impressed with the lacklustre showing from his Wolves side
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Tuesday, 02, Feb 2010 09:42
By Darren Plant.
Danny Butterfield went down in Crystal Palace folklore with a six minute hat-trick to knock Wolves out of the FA Cup with a 3-1 win at Selhurst Park.
Palace had dominated for an hour of the match with nothing to show from it, but Butterfield - who had previously only scored seven goals in 252 Palace games - popped up with the perfect hat-trick to hand his side a televised fifth round match at home to Aston Villa and a timely financial boost.
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock named a full strength side after managing to stave off interest in his players on the final day of the transfer window - only losing Victor Moses to Wigan at the weekend - while Wolves boss Mick McCarthy handed a first start to Geoffrey Mujangi-Bia after he signed on loan from Charleroi.
Palace striker Alan Lee was posing early problems for the Wolves backline, and it was from his knock-down in the 12th minute that his side had their first attempt on goal but Darren Ambrose volleyed harmlessly over.
Five minutes later, Ambrose was in the thick of the action once again when he impressively made space for himself in the Wolves penalty area after a Nathaniel Clyne pull-back, but he hit his first time shot just over Wayne Hennessey's crossbar.
Wolves were struggling to create clear-cut chances with Sam Vokes looking isolated up front and their first opportunity came from Mujangi-Bia but after a neat exchange with Nenad Milijas, he fired a first time effort high into the stand behind the goal.
The match continued to be a scrappy affair, but it was the home side who possessed the greater threat in front of goal, and Hennessey would have been grateful to Jody Craddock and Michael Mancienne after they blocked goal bound efforts from Ambrose and Nick Carle.
Palace produced the move of the match four minutes from the break and came centimetres away from taking the lead. A flowing move resulted in Clyne crossing to the back post for Carle, and after the Australian midfielder held up the ball, he shot across Hennessey's goal and the ball just evaded the far post.
A minute later, Wolves created their best chance of the match through a Milijas set-piece midway in the Palace half, but Vokes glancing header from 12 yards went wide of the far post.
At the start of the second half, the lively Ambrose threatened the Wolves goal once for the third time with a 25 yard free kick but it was comfortably saved by Hennessey.
Like the first half, it remained all Palace and Neil Danns was the next to go close after he rose above Craddock to head towards goal but the ball drifted just wide of the post.
The home side took a deserved lead on the hour mark, but the goal came in fortunate circumstances.
The linesman awarded a corner despite the ball ricocheting off Butterfield, and after Matt Lawrence had seen his header well saved by Hennessey, Butterfield was excellently placed to head in the rebound.
Four minutes later, it was two after Ambrose played the ball into the path of Butterfield and after seeing off the attentions of Richard Stearman, he forced the ball under the body of Hennessey to send the Selhurst Park crowd into raptures.
Just when it seemed it could get know better for the 30 year old, he completed the perfect hat-trick after Craddock and Ronald Zubar left the ball for each other in the Wolves penalty area, and Butterfield reacted to fire under Hennessey to cap off a memorable six minutes for the financially stricken club.
Butterfield had the audacity to try an awkward shot with his back to goal, but it trickled wide, and back up the end, Berra headed wide from a Stearman cross.
With Palace all but assured a fifth round tie with Aston Villa, manager Warnock withdrawn Butterfield to an heroes welcome, and despite Karl Henry scoring an impressive left foot volley in injury time, this impressive win will come as a big boost to Palace both on and off the pitch.