Leicester City - 0
Crystal Palace - 3 (Morrison C 17. Thomson 23. Rubins 52.)

Following on from the fine display at Reebok Stadium on Saturday, Palace took the opportunity to stay away from home, and train on the Monday and Tuesday for this match. Of course, last year we met Leicester in this same Cup, though one round earlier, and we were beaten 7-5 on aggregate. Leicester then went on to win the Cup, and their record in this competition is enviable to say the least.

Tall poppies though are simply there for the picking, and it is notable how many Premiership teams have already fallen out of this competition. The trouble is the top teams are always on a hiding to nothing when it comes to matches such as this, because if they win it is "nothing more than expected" and if they lose it is news around the world. With Peter Taylor having just been appointed England's caretaker manager though, and considering the comparative positions of the two teams (Leicester currently 3rd in the Premiership) one really would have thought that they would have put in a better display than this. Is there really such little difference in the two Leagues? One would hardly think so when you consider the records of teams recently promoted, they inevitably come crashing straight back down again.

Admittedly Taylor made the classic mistake of thinking that the visiting opposition would be easily beaten, as he decided to rest skipper Matt Elliott with Muzzy Izzet and Robbie Savage all on the bench. At least he gave us enough respect to put them on the subs list, and did not leave them out of the match altogether! Another problem he had was that keeper Tim Flowers was injured, so he gave a first start of the season to Simon Royce.

Palace took to the field looking quite at home, and surprisingly to all present they took the lead just after the quarter hour mark. Wayne Carlisle took a corner that was headed on by Craig Harrison across the goal square. Clinton Morrison was on hand to force the ball home from close range, but this merely seemed to wake up the home team who suddenly seemed to realise that they had a game on their hands.

Richard Creswell and Frank Sinclair both came close to levelling the scores, but for once the defence was equal to the task, and we managed to maintain the lead we had worked so hard for.

Palace though was in fine form, and it did not take too long for them to increase their lead from one to two. It was the midfielders for Palace that were making all the play, and it was only fitting that one of them was next on the scoresheet.

Callum Davidson attempted a tackle on Steve Thomson, but Steve managed to spin out of the tackle and fired in a great shot from fully 30 yards out which went past Royce in goal before he had time to blink.

Leicester were not done with yet though, and they started to take the game to Palace. One very confident shout for a penalty came just before half time when it appeared to most at the ground, other than the men in black, that Jamie Smith had handled the ball in the area. The visiting supporters collectively sighed with relief when the appeal was turned down, a goal at this point would have brought back shades of the situation against Portsmouth just a few weeks before.

At the break, and with Palace still holding their two goal lead, Taylor was forced to make three substitutions to try to rescue the situation, bringing all three of the players left on the bench into the game.

Now Palace needed all backs to the wall in order to try to hang on, didn't they?

Despite a flurry of action it was to be Palace that once again scored, much to the bemusement of the home fans. Andrejs Rubins ran on to the ball in his own half, and advancing on goal he found little opposition to his move forward. Once again, like Thomson, he decided to try his luck from about 30 yards out, and the ball sailed into the back of the net.

There was still nearly 40 minutes left in the match, but all the fight seemed to have been knocked out of the Cup holders. Admittedly a few half chances went their way, but the closest they came was when Trevor Benjamin put in a beautiful shot, but the ball was cleared off the line by Harrison, who was really having quite a good game, as were most of the Palace contingent.

Leicester will now have to look at winning this Cup next season, as their run this year was ended by a committed Palace side that finally showed the potential they have to win matches such as this. Alan will be looking forward now to seeing this type of form repeated in the League matches to come.

Palace can start to show that kind of form when they meet Sheffield Wednesday at Selhurst Park next Saturday, and then hopefully the crowds will start to come back to the ground in ever increasing numbers.

Colin Pryce

Leicester City: Simon Royce, Frank Sinclair, Callum Davidson, Gary Rowett, Phil Gilchrist (Matt Elliott 45), Neil Lennon, Billy McKinlay, Darren Eadie (Muzzy Izzet 45), Arnar Gunnlaugsson, Richard Creswell (Trevor Benjamin 45), Steve Guppy.

Substitutes not used: Robbie Savage, ? Price.

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Jamie Smith, Dean Austin, Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger, Clinton Morrison, Tommy Black, Steve Thomson, Andrejs Rubins, Wayne Carlisle, Craig Harrison.

Substitutes not used: Andrew Frampton, Julian Gray, Steve Evans, Matthew Gregg, Mikael Forssell.

Attendance: 12,965

Referee: Mr R Pearson (Peterlee).