Crystal Palace 3
Leigertwood 66, Granville 70, Johnson pen 77
Tottenham Hotspur 0

Crystal Palace won the battle between Wayne Routledge's present and potential employers last Saturday as the Eagles grabbed three vital points in the fight to avoid the drop.

With Southampton and West Bromwich Albion both winning, Palace's win had extra significance as the victory still keeps their relegation rivals in the bottom three before this weekend's break in Premiership fixtures.

Iain Dowie said: "Our second-half display won it for us. I thought it was a tight, edgy display by both teams in the first half and both sides negated each other.

"In the second half we took control of the game and the first goal came from a great cross by Tom Soares and from then we really opened them up.

"Our midfield was terrific throughout."

Dowie recalled Dougie Freedman to the Palace attack and his presence gave the Spurs defence something extra to think about, giving Andy Johnson more space to run into and carve out more opportunities for Freedman and co.

But the game took a while to get going and it took 16 minutes before Palace had their first shot on goal, when Danny Granville's free kick was comfortably saved by Robinson. Spurs youngster Dean Marney then fired straight at Kiraly, before Erik Edman curled a free-kick just over after Robbie Keane had been brought down by Mikele Leigertwood.

It was Marney who had the best opportunity of the half, on 42 minutes, when he forced Kiraly into action after the ball fell kindly to him inside the box. Kiraly parried away his effort.

But the game came to life on 66 minutes when Dougie Freedman teed up Tom Soares to cross into the box which was met by the outstretched foot of Mikele Leigertwood who, via the crossbar, put Palace in front with his first goal for the club.

Then four minutes later, Danny Granville doubled Palace's lead when he was expertly put through by Routledge and he slid the ball under Robinson.

Andrew Johnson heaped more misery on a shell-shocked Spurs when he was fouled in the box and he fired in the resulting penalty straight down the middle.

Freedman was later denied by Robinson as Palace mounted another attack, but the score remained the same for a morale boosting three points against a side who had only been previously beaten once in 11 games.

MATCH STATSPalace star man Michael Hughes Orchestrated everything which was good about Palace and showed how important he is to the side after missing last Saturday's game with Man City through suspension. Tireless running and calming influence on the ball, the Palace captain is a class act at the moment.

Palace: Kiraly 7, Boyce 8, Hall 8, Sorondo 9, Granville 7, Routledge 7, Leigertwood 7, Hughes 9, Soares 8 (Borrowdale 88 6), Johnson 8 (Andrews 88 6), Freedman 8.

Subs Not Used: Speroni, Powell, Lakis.

PALACE Tottenham Hotspur 7 On Target 4 2 Off Target 6 9 Fouls 5 1 Yellow Cards 2 0 Red Cards 0