Away day misery continues

An opening goal 12 seconds into the match set a struggling Plymouth Argyle on their way to dishing out Crystal Palace's third straight away defeat From the kick-off, Tony Pulis' Argyle side heaved the ball forward to Michael Evans whose flick-on found Nick Chadwick, who was able to lob an out of position Julian Speroni in the Palace goal.

It took just five touches before the ball was in the back of the net and the Pilgrims had already shattered Iain Dowie's game-plan of pinning them back through the attacking prowess of Clinton Morrison, Andrew Johnson and Dougie Freedman at the head of a 4-3-3 formation.

But Palace didn't panic from their collective lapse in concentration. Freedman and Morrison combined to drag the Eagles from the warm dressing room that they were still hiding in by fashioning a good chance from nothing after 10 minutes, only for Argyle's French keeper Romain Larrieu to save Morrison's effort with his legs.

Argyle nearly doubled their lead in the 20th minute after Freedman fouled David Norris out on the wing. Northern Ireland international Tony Capaldi swung in the resulting free-kick only for Frenchman Mathias Kouo-Doumbe to flash his header inches wide.

With just five minutes of the half remaining, Palace defender Tony Popovic nearly scored at the wrong end. A terrible back pass ended up flying goal wards until Speroni chested the ball down under pressure from the Argyle forward line and cleared.

On the stroke of half time Kouo-Doumbe got in the act of kamikaze defending when his attempted clearance fell straight to Johnson.

The England international didn't need an invitation to take a strike at goal, unleashing a great effort that smacked the bottom of Larrieu's upright before pinging off to safety.

After the inevitable and deserved ear-bashing by Dowie at the break, Palace came out stronger in the second half.

In the 48th minute Paul Connolly should arguably have been sent off for catching Freedman in the face, but he escaped a red card from lenient whistle-blower Richard Beeby.

For the next 20 minutes it was all Palace as Dowie's men looked to grab something from the game to at least try and cheer up the 1,500 or so who had made the long journey from south London.

Michael Hughes should have grabbed the equaliser with 25 minutes to go. A flowing move initiated by a tough tackling Morrison in midfield ended with the Ulsterman putting the ball wide after a pinpoint cross from Ben Watson when a goal seemed inevitable.

Palace switched to 4-4-2 with the introduction of Jobi McAnuff and Marco Reich on the wings, but in their desire to push forward, let Capaldi sneak in for a second Plymouth goal in the dying moments.