Palace 4 Ipswich 2

• Palace look confident from the off, and soon take a clear lead through a Luke Plange brace inside 12 minutes
• Ipswich look bright for a spell in the middle of the second-half, but can’t capitalise on some half-chance
• Christian Benteke, who earned a pair of assists for Plange, gets a goal of his own shortly before half-time
• Half-time: Crystal Palace 3-0 Ipswich Town
• The second-half starts slowly, but Wilfried Zaha injects it with some energy with an excellent chipped assist for Plange to claim his hat-trick
• At 4-0 up Palace still look hungry for more, but Ipswich react after a quadruple home sub and pull one back through Dominic Ball
• The visitors add a second when Sone Aluko strikes in from 20 yards
• Full-time: Crystal Palace 4-2 Ipswich Town

Crystal Palace looked confident as they hosted Ipswich Town at the Academy on Saturday morning, and their assurance only grew with every goal scored in a 4-2 win.

Luke Plange and Christian Benteke were razor sharp in the first-half and guided Palace to an early lead.

The pair combined to bag mirror-image goals: Benteke feeding Plange selflessly on both occasions for the young attacker to strike into a near-empty goal.

Throughout the opening exchanges Benteke looked for his teammates, but managed to claim a goal of his own shortly before half-time, striking impressively on the end of an excellent ball over the top.

At half-time Palace would have felt glad to be three-up in intense heat. Assistant manager Osian Roberts changed every member of the team at some point, but the second-half understandably started slowly.

Wilfried Zaha wasn’t switched off, however, and produced a sublime no-look chip to feed Plange in the box. Collecting the ball on his chest and spinning, Plange managed to lob goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky by thwacking his shot off the ground.

A four-goal cushion seemed to guarantee Palace victory, and though the home side still looked keen for more, Ipswich eventually broke through to claim two consolation goals: Dominic Ball heading in and Sone Aluko netting a strong 20-yard strike.

These efforts from the Suffolk side may have kept the pressure on Palace’s by-now-young XI, but the hosts had done enough to ensure a win, and the Eagles held firm for the final few minutes to record another entertaining home victory.