Crystal Palace - 2 (Morrison 24. Thomson 89.)
Sunderland - 4 (Quinn 72. Phillips 73. 102. Kilbane 113.)

Somewhere along the line the Cup run bubble had to burst, and though it was disappointing for those at Selhurst Park on the night, we can all be consoled by the following fact. We can now concentrate on consolidating our position in the League, and with only 19 games remaining this season we have 57 points to aim for. The lion's share of those points would certainly be welcome, just as soon as we have lifted the Worthington Cup! Of course we must not lose the realisation that on this particular evening we gave a very good account of ourselves, particularly considering the relative League positions of the two sides. It would seem that over the course of the three games against Sunderland we have really acquitted ourselves quite well, and have probably gained the better part of the deal still having our hopes alive in the late stages of the Worthington Cup.

In freezing conditions the match kicked off, and it appeared that Palace were having the better of the exchanges. Clinton Morrison was the first to attack the goal, and though Thomas Sorensen managed to head the ball clear he ran into his own defender, Stanislav Varga, causing a long delay whilst Varga had treatment to a head wound. Don Hutchison and Niall Quinn then combined well to put Kevin Phillips through on goal, but Andrejs Rubins cleared the ball before he could do any damage.

This was followed by one of the worst goal clearances seen at Selhurst of late when Alex Kolinko squirted the ball straight to Alex Rae, but fortunately he sprayed his shot well wide of the mark. Clinton then managed to avoid the offside trap, and with only the keeper to beat he hit his shot far too weakly, and Sorensen was able to easily hang on to the ball. The keeper then made good saves from attempts made by both Clinton and Steve Thomson. He was not able to do anything though a few minutes later when Rae headed a clearance straight into the path of Clinton who made no mistake crashing the ball straight back past the stranded keeper. Suddenly it was 1-0 to Palace, and the fans were suddenly dreaming of yet another fantastic Cup run.

From this point on most of the possession seemed to belong to Palace, but somewhat ironically most of the chances went to Sunderland when it came to meaningful attacks on goal. Niall Quinn started to come more into the game, and his pass to Kevin Phillips was well saved by Alex in goal. Phillips then set about goal again, but Alex, with a fine double save, foiled him once again. For the remainder of the half Alex remained the hero of Selhurst Park, and at the break we still maintained our 1-0 advantage.

The second half saw Alex make further saves from Rae and Darren Williams whilst Hutchison and Quinn sent their efforts wide. It was starting to become obvious though that the Premiership team were going to score at some stage soon. The goal came at the 72-minute mark, and a brilliant piece of work it was. Receiving the ball with his back to the net Quinn somehow managed to turn and shoot, and the ball flew into the back of the net before Alex could even begin to move. The trouble was that there was worse to come almost immediately afterwards. A long ball found Phillips in a race with Hayden Mullins for the ball which the attacker won, and he duly crashed the ball into the back of the net to put Sunderland into the lead for the first time.

In fact this was the first time that Sunderland had been in the lead in the three Cup matches this season, though it started to look as though this would be enough to take them safely through on the night. The clock gradually wound down for the next 15 minutes, and as the Palace supporters prepared to leave for the night the team managed to find one last effort to keep the tie alive. Hayden made a great move down the line, and despite the calls for offside he slipped the ball across to a waiting Steve Thomson. Steve had little to do other than tap the ball home, and suddenly we were back on level terms with but a minute left to go in the match.

The final whistle sounded, and once again we found ourselves faced with extra time to be played, and hopefully a bonanza for the Palace supporters.

Extra time got underway with neither side make any real moves on goal, until suddenly a through ball found Phillips once again in a race for the ball, this time against Neil Ruddock. Neil lost, Phillips scored and once again we were behind.

Almost immediately afterwards Daniele Dichio was sent off the field of play, having picked up his second caution for the match, and he had only been on the pitch for a little over 15 minutes. Much like Palace though, when Hayden was sent off in the first fixture, Sunderland did not let the loss of a player get them down. In a breakaway move they even managed to score a fourth, this time courtesy of substitute Kevin Kilbane. The scoreline somewhat flattered the visiting team, though they certainly deserved their hard fought win, and Alan Smith can have had no complaints about the performance of his side on the night. Every Palace fan would have gone away from the ground well satisfied with the team's performance, though maybe a little disappointed with the final result.

Even so, well-done Palace, you did us proud. Now, let's see if we can't force our way past Liverpool and make a finals appearance at the new Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Hayden Mullins, Craig Harrison, Fan Zhiyi Neil Ruddock 52), Dean Austin, Jamie Smith (Tommy Smith 76), Simon Rodger, Steve Thomson, Andrejs Rubins, Clinton Morrison, Mikael Forssell (Dougie Freedman 70).

Substitutes not used: Matthew Gregg, Jamie Pollock.

Sunderland: Thomas Sorensen, Darren Williams, Michael Gray, Emerson Thome, Stanislav Varga, Gavin McCann, Don Hutchison, Alex Rae, Stefan Schwarz (Kevin Kilbane 90), Niall Quinn (Daniele Dichio 88), Kevin Phillips (John Oster 105).

Substitutes not used: Jody Craddock, Paul Thirlwell.

Attendance: 15,454

Referee: Mr M Riley (Leeds).