LONDON : Crystal Palace held high-flying Brighton & Hove Albion to a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Saturday after James Tomkins capitalised on a calamitous error from goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to cancel out Solly March’s opener.
Brighton, who have not lost this year, had dominated the game but struggled to convert chances and the result leaves them on 35 points in sixth place, while Palace are 12th with Patrick Vieira’s side yet to taste a league victory in 2023.
The breakthrough had come in the 63rd minute when March stole past the last defender to skilfully turn in Pervis Estupinan’s cross at the far post despite it being at an awkward height.
But Palace levelled six minutes later when Brighton keeper Sanchez made a mess of a straightforward catch from a set-piece, with the ball bouncing up kindly for Tomkins who headed it into an empty net.
“It is frustrating, we dominated the game. We had a few chances to kill the game off and unfortunately for us it wasn’t to be. It was one of those days,” March said.
“It always seem to be the same against Palace. They always seem to be able to find a goal. Nothing against Rob but it was a mistake and that happens.”
Brighton last beat Palace in March 2019 while the last three games between the sides have ended in a 1-1 draw.
“They give us a good game every time they play us, they have good players and a point was a reward for how hard we worked today,” Tomkins told the BBC.
“It was just nice to play. I haven’t played too much this year. The adrenalin was pumping so it was nice to contribute.”
Brighton broke through Palace’s defence numerous times in the first half, with Kaoru Mitoma seeing his angled shot denied by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita while Adam Webster also had a header go wide.
Estupinan had the ball in the net shortly after the half-hour mark but just as the Ecuadorian full back celebrated what he thought was his first goal for Brighton, VAR came to Palace’s rescue and chalked it off for offside.
Argentina’s World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister had two chances to grab a late winner for Brighton, but he first saw his close-range header go just wide of the post before a second shot in the 90th minute was well saved by Guaita.
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