Shef cooks up a treat at last

Crystal Palace fans have been waiting a long time for Shefki Kuqi to start firing and judging by his display against Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, the wait looks to be over.

The Finn was a menace throughout and clearly played with confidence so lacking during his short time at Selhurst Park.

His partnership with Dougie Freedman looked particularly promising, which will surely encourage Peter Taylor to stick with the duo for this Saturday's game against Colchester.

As well as recalling Kuqi and Freedman, the Palace boss brought back Ben Watson into the middle of the Palace midfield and the Eagles youngster did his first team chances no harm with a series of late forages into the box.

Whereas the previous game against Wolves was void of goal scoring opportunities, this game was chances galore and Palace could have won by several more than the three goals they put past Simon Royce.

The visitors nearly took a shock lead in the sixth minute when on-loan keeper Iain Turner failed to claim a looping cross which fell to Martin Rowlands and after neatly dribbling into the centre of the box, his goalbound effort was deflected over by Danny Butterfield.

Rowlands went close again five minutes later when he dragged his shot wide, before Dougie Freedman gave Palace the lead with their first real attack of the game.

Kuqi masterminded the goal. He picked the ball up on the right touch-line and muscled his way into the box and pulled the ball back to Freedman to calmly slot past Royce.

Rangers' Marc Nygaard somehow failed to make it 1-1 when he failed to get on the end of Ray Jones' headed cross with the goal gaping in front of him.

Buoyed by their let-off, Palace made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute when Kuqi scored his first goal at Selhurst Park.

Freedman replayed the Finn for his earlier assist, slotting Kuqi through on goal and the striker managed to squeeze the ball under Royce.

After the break Palace continued where they left off and looked for more goals. Kuqi and McAnuff were guilty of some poor misses as Palace dominated.

Freedman was replaced by Clinton Morrison with 10-minutes remaining after picking up a knock and it did not take long for the substitute to get in on the action.

Michael Hughes slipped in Tom Soares and the Palace midfielder pulled the ball back across goal for Morrison to provide the simple tap-in and secure the Eagles' most emphatic win of the season.

Palace star man: Shefki Kuqi. His work-rate and commitment has never been questioned. But he put to bed worries over his fitness and composure inside the box with an impressive attacking display. Needs to play more regularly to improve.Palace: Turner 7, Butterfield 6 (Lawrence 44 6), Ward 7, Hudson 8, Granville 6, Soares 6, Hughes 7 (Green 89 5), Watson 6, McAnuff 7