A soft penalty denied Crystal Palace all three points as they were held to a 1-1 draw by derby rivals Brighton & Hove Albion at Selhurst Park.

Assistant referee Simon Beck deemed Nathaniel Clyne to have bundled Will Buckley over 16 minutes from time but it was a soft award.

Ashley Barnes converted it with little fuss though to bring the Seagulls level after Palace had gone ahead through a penalty of their own, scored by Chris Martin, 10 minutes earlier.

A draw in the end was probably a fair result in a game that failed to sparkle in the first half and only came to life after a succession of bookings in the second.

Brighton had the best chance of the opening 30 minutes when Buckley got in behind Jonathan Parr and crossed for Craig Mackail-Smith to shoot straight at Julian Speroni, who saved instinctively with his legs.

Anthony Gardner, captain in the absence of suspended Paddy McCarthy, put his body on the line to block Barnes shot before the lively Wilfried Zaha had the Eagles’ best chance of the opening period – but saw his fierce shot parried by Peter Brezovan.

Palace were better in the second half and saw Martin flash a half volley over the bar and Zaha pull the ball back for Sean Scannell who had his shot blocked.

Ten minutes into the second half the game threatened to boil over as Adam El-Abd, Zaha, Brezovan and Mile Jedinak were all booked in quick succession.

Inigo Calderon’s superb tackle then denied Scannell a goal scoring chance before Palace’s superiority eventually put them ahead.

Buckley was adjudged to have tripped Zaha in the box and Martin placed the kick firmly down the middle.

Palace, buoyed by the vocal home support, were on top but then shot themselves in the foot.

While the penalty award was soft, both Kagisho Dikgacoi and Clyne turned back into trouble on the egde of their box when they should have cleared the ball, gifting it instead to Buckley who went down easily under Clyne’s challenge.

From then it was Brighton that pushed for the winner but Palace, and the impressive Paul McShane held firm, although they did need Speroni to make a fabulous save to deny Calderon’s long-range shot that was destined for the top corner in injury time.

The final whistle was greeted with mute applause but Palace could feel aggrieved not to have held on to the win.