Report & Highlights: Wolves end Palace U21s' unbeaten run

Summary

• Darren Powell made three changes to the side which drew with West Ham

• Palace’s Noah Watson was shown a straight red card for a hand ball in the 26th minute

• Wolves took the lead through Ollie Tipton from the spot

• David Ozoh nearly levelled, but his effort was saved by Louie Moulden

• Nathan Fraser doubled the lead for Wolves in the 38th minute

• Fraser added another just before half-time

• Half-time: Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 Crystal Palace

• Fraser completed his hat-trick shortly after the restart

• The hosts added a fifth through Owen Farmer just before the hour-mark

• Owen Goodman pulled off some great saves to prevent even more from Wolves

• Danny Imray hit the post for Palace in the 90th minute, as did Ty Barnett for Wolves a minute later

• Full-time: Wolverhampton Wanderers 5-0 Crystal Palace

A week on from the chaotic 3-3 comeback against West Ham United with 10-men, Crystal Palace Under-21s travelled to the West Midlands to face Wolverhampton Wanderers in their final away game of the season.

Manager Darren Powell made three changes to the side which drew against the Hammers, with Owen Goodman, Seán Grehan and Fionn Mooney coming in for Joe Whitworth, Jack Wells-Morrison and Ademola Ola-Adebomi.

There wasn’t much to separate the two sides in the opening exchanges. Palace had chances through Grehan and Jadan Raymond: the former seeing an effort from 20-yards skewed wide, while the latter’s shot was blocked.

Wolves’ best chances early on came through two free-kicks. The first saw Alfie Pond glance a header just wide and the second resulted in Owen Farmer lashing a shot just wide of the post.

The evenly matched affair was swung into Wolves’ favour 26 minutes in as Noah Watson was shown a straight red card. The Palace defender slid in to deny a shot inside the box and unfortunately handled the ball in the process.

As a result of the sending off, Wolves earned a penalty and captain Ollie Tipton stepped up from the spot. The centre-back sent Goodman the wrong way and gave the hosts the lead.

Much like the game against the Hammers last week, the Eagles were down to 10 early on and had to fight their way back into the game. Danny Imray went racing down the right flank in search of an equaliser and managed to pick out David Ozoh. The midfielder’s strong side footed effort was saved by Louie Moulden in the Wolves goal.

The hosts managed to double their lead 10 minutes after getting their noses in front. Harvey Griffiths’ direct run was cut out by Grehan, but the ball broke kindly to striker Nathan Fraser who slotted home on his left foot.

Wolves added another just before half-time and it was Fraser once more. A decisive run and defence-splitting pass from Joe Hodge saw him pick out the No. 9  and he made no mistake to secure a brace.

Palace had it all to do if they were to salvage something from this game with 10-men in the second-half, but their misery was compounded as Fraser completed his hat-trick just seven minutes after the restart. A quickly worked one-two inside the box between Ty Barnett and Fraser saw the ball fall to the forward to finish inside the six-yard box.

Farmer all but sealed the points for the hosts, as he added a fifth for them just two minutes later. A loose clearance saw the ball headed on into the path of the onrushing Farmer and he managed to get in the act with a fierce shot across the face of goal that just crept in.

In the final half an hour of the game, Goodman pulled off two strong stops to prevent Wolves’ Tyler Roberts from adding more to their tally. The first was a strong save low down from Roberts’ header, while the second was a great reaction stop to tip a strong effort over the bar.

The woodwork was hit by both sides as the game trickled into stoppage time. Imray was picked out by a great diagonal ball from Kofi Balmer and the right-back’s shot across goal bounced off the inside of the post and back out. At the other end, Barnett rattled the crossbar with a shot from 20-yards out.

With four minutes of time added on played, the referee put Palace out of their misery. The result means they remain in third place in the Premier League 2 Division 1, a point behind Chelsea and two clear of Liverpool.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Moulden (GK), Lembikisa, Tipton, Pond, Hubner, Griffiths (Esen, 74), Hodge, Hesketh (Roberts, 66), Barnet, Farmer, Fraser (Birtwistle, 83).

Subs not used: Young (GK), Mabete.

Crystal Palace: Goodman (GK), Imray, Grehan, Balmer, Watson, Adaramola, Ozoh, Rodney, Raymond, Akinwale (Vigor, 66), Mooney (Umeh, 45).

Subs not used: Izquierdo (GK), Omilabu, Trialist.