It was the Premier League debutants that made the difference this afternoon in a crucial game between two relegation candidates, as three of the four goals were scored by new players. Tom Ince opened the scoring after 15 minutes in his first start in Palace colours before fellow deadline day signing Joe Ledley headed home his own debut goal. In the second half it took just 40 seconds for West Brom debutant Thievy Bifouma to find the net but the comeback was halted by Marouane Chamakh's penalty. Victor Anichebe had the first chance of the match when a long ball sent him through on goal but he could only hit a tame shot straight at Julian Speroni. After a quarter of an hour the Eagles took the lead. Yannick Bolasie slipped a pass through to Tom Ince, who cooly lifted the ball over the charging Foster for his debut goal. 12 minutes later they doubled their advantage. Ince's corner was headed home by Joe Ledley, who was also making his debut, as Palace's deadline day signings showed their effectiveness. At half-time the hosts were cruising and looked in good value for their lead, while West Brom needed to sort themselves out at the interval and offer more in the second period. Immediately after the restart they did exactly that. Thievy Bifouma was introduced at the break for his debut and he made an instant impression, sweeping home Anichebe's cross after 40 seconds. Crystal Palace came close to restoring their two goal advantage when a corner resulted in a scramble in the goalmouth but the Baggies hooked the ball away. Speroni was required to be on hand with a numerous fine saves to keep the visitors at bay, tipping a James Morrison thunderbolt over the bar and making a point blank save from the following corner. The Eagles had scored just three goals in their last six league games, all of which came from Jason Puncheon, but they grabbed a vital third goal to crush the Baggies fightback. With 21 minutes remaining Marouane Chamakh raced through on goal but was bought down by Foster as he attempted to go round him. The keeper avoided the red card but dived the wrong way for the Moroccan's penalty which nestled into the bottom corner. The result lifts the Eagles three points above the trap-door and just a point off mid-table, while the defeat drops the Baggies into the relegation zone as other games went against them.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
