Bye, bye, Premiership

A second half capitulation of catastrophic proportions left the Eagles Premiership dreams in tatters at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Three well-taken strikes by Marlon King, Ashley Young and Matthew Spring stunned the home crowd and left Iain Dowie's side with a mountain to climb in last night's semi-final second leg.

An angry Iain Dowie slammed his side's loss of concentration in the opening minutes of the second half and admitted poor defending will probably cost his side a place in Cardiff.

"We're disappointed to say the least. Goals change games and that's clearly the case today because we had a mad minute just after half time and we've not left a high line and conceded a foolish goal."

Despite the return to fitness of Danny Butterfield, Dowie kept faith with the Darren Ward and Tony Popovic centre back pairing, with Fitz Hall and Emmerson Boyce playing at full back. But the decision failed to pay off as Ward and Popovic looked shaky from the opening minute.

A Popovic error nearly saw Watford's top scorer King give his side a seventh minute lead when he let a huge Ben Foster punt go under his foot which was latched on to by King but he was denied by Kiraly.

Palace hit back with their first attempt when Jobi McAnuff cut in from the left and his fierce shot was palmed wide by Foster on his right-hand post.

After Young tested Kiraly from 20 yards, Andrew Johnson missed the Eagles' best chance of the game after 15 minutes. Ben Watson's quick free kick picked out the Palace striker inside the box and his first time shot from the angle drifted inches past the far post.

The Palace pressure contiued and Watford were let off again eight minutes later. A long ball over the top of the Watford defence triggered a sprint between Clinton Morrison and Hornets defender Jake DeMerit who was clearly seen pulling back the Palace striker's shirt. The referee ignored the Palace protests much to the displeasure of the Republic of Ireland striker.

A minute later Morrison missed another good opportunity when he curled a shot just wide from the edge of the box.

The hosts were on top and should have gone into the break in front but neither side could find a breakthrough in a goalless first half.

But within a minute of the second half the tie turned on its head courtesy of some poor Palace defending.

Ward and Popovic let a long Foster clearance bounce before King muscled his way to the ball and spun Ward before firing a fierce left-footed shot off Kiraly's left-hand post to give his side the lead.

King was proving to be a real handful and forced Kiraly to palm wide after cutting in from the left. Dowie made a double substitution replacing the error prone Ward with Danny Butterfield and the ineffective Tom Soares with Dougie Freedman.

But the change failed to inspire Palace and within a minute Watford doubled their lead. Ashley Young curled a superb 30-yard free kick over the wall and past Kiraly to the delight of the Hornets travelling fans and to the disgust of Kiraly who was not slow to show his anger at the Palace wall.

King nearly made it 3-0 six minutes later when his goalbound shot was deflected wide before Palace nearly grabbed a lifeline when Emmerson Boyce saw his effort crucially saved by Foster.

At 2-0 down an aggregate win was still achievable, but four minutes from time Watford put the tie effectively out of Palace's reach.

Sloppy marking allowed Spring possession on the corner of the Palace box and after ghosting past two defenders he hammered the ball into the roof of the net to seal a woeful day for most of Selhurst Park.

Palace star man: Emmerson Boyce. The full back has been the Eagles' best defender this season and put in another solid performance at the back. Surely time for him to be moved to the centre.Palace: Kiraly 6, Ward 4 (Butterfield 65 6), Fitz Hall 6, Popovic 4, Boyce 8, McAnuff 7, Watson 6, Soares 5 (Freedman 65 6), Hughes 6, Johnson 7, Morrison 6