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Impressive Palace win relegation battle at Huddersfield
By Simon Evans
HUDDERSFIELD, England (Reuters) - HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 0 CRYSTAL PALACE 2
Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace ended a seven-game winless run and moved out of the relegation zone after an accomplished 2-0 win at fellow Premier League strugglers Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
Palace were full value for the victory having taken the lead in the 23rd minute through James Tomkins before skipper Luka Milivojevic’s 68th-minute penalty secured the win.
The victory moved Palace up to 16th place, on 30 points, a point behind Huddersfield, who are 15th, and with bottom pair Stoke and West Brom losing, it was the perfect day for Hodgson and his team.
"It is vitally important. All the points teams get down near the bottom are vitally important," said former England manager Hodgson.
"We have had a difficult run of games and to get something here at least puts us back in some sort of equilibrium," he added.
For David Wagner’s Huddersfield it was, however, a worrying result ahead of two more relegation six pointers at Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion.
"It’s important how you manage defeats and a disappointment like today. The good thing is that we know what we have done wrong and what we need to put right," said Wagner, who blamed his side's poor play in possession for the loss.
The return of Wilfried Zaha to the Palace starting line-up after over a month out with injury not surprisingly had a positive impact.
Without Zaha Palace had slipped back into the relegation zone, losing their last four games.
Indeed, such is Zaha’s influence that throughout the campaign Palace have not won any of the nine matches he has missed.
LIMPED OFF
Although Zaha limped off late in the game, Hodgson said he did not believe he had suffered any serious problem.
"I don’t know that it was a definite injury, you will have seen he took quite a few kicks there towards the end of the game.
"He took a couple of little knocks and add to that there is an element of fatigue with is first full game for seven weeks, I haven’t been given any indication that he has picked up any serious injury," the Palace manager added.
The visitors posed the greater threat in the first half with Zaha lively on the left flank, Christian Benteke dominant down the middle and Andros Townsend inventive on the right.
The lead came from a corner from early substitute Yohan Cabaye with Huddersfield’s defence failing to clear and Tomkins poking home at the second attempt.
Huddersfield were posing little threat with lone striker Steve Mounie getting little support while Palace’s defence looked solid with Mamadou Sakho impressive.
Palace felt, with some justification, that they should have had a penalty in the 55th minute when Benteke went down as Mathias Zanka pulled on his arm but referee Mike Dean waved away the appeals.
Tomkins went close to another goal but Mounie cleared his effort off the line as Palace pushed forward.
The second came, with an air of inevitability, when Zanka’s lunging challenge brought down Townsend inside the area and Milivojevic confidently drove home the penalty.
It took a fine save from Huddersfield keeper Jonas Loessl to keep out a well-crafted effort from Cabaye as Palace, brimming with confidence, stayed on the front foot on a day which may turn out to be crucial in their bid for top-flight survival.
(Reporting by Simon Evans, editing by Ed Osmond)
