Same old, same old as Ipswich were thumped by Palace, managed by Ian Holloway who was in charge of Blackpool when they thrashed us 6-0 early in the season.
In a rare forage forward, DJ Campbell hit a shot straight to Julian Speroni in the Palace goal, while Ritchie Wellens hit a shot wide from the edge of the box after a Martin corner went to him.
The Blues went behind after 24 minutes when Yannic Bolaise gave Palace the lead after more good play from Owen Garvan.
Five minutes into the second half Luke Chambers brought down Wilfried Zaha and Glenn Murray beat Stephen Henderson from the penalty spot.
Five minutes later Palace got another penalty, a bit soft although Aaron Cresswell shoved Garvan, and even though Henderson guessed the right way and almost saved it, Murray grabbed his ninth goal in ten games for the Londoners.
A minute late Murray missed his chance for a hat-trick of spot kicks as henderson guessed right again and saved. The penalty was given when Chambers pushed Garvan over, the centre-half had a nightmare.
Murray, who we could have signed from Brighton but didn’t, finally got his hat-trick when he knocked in from close range after Joel Ward took the pee out of our rubbish defence to put in a low cross.
Even when we put on world class defender, ahem, Tommy Smith, we could not do much, with N’Daw and JET going on as well, but Palace snatched a fifth in injury time when Andre Moritz caught Town on the counter.
Town just could not cope with Palace’s mobile midfield and it already looks as if Mick McCarthy’s magic has worn off.
Mind you Palace, who went top of the table with the win, are a decent side, while we who stay bottom, who look anything but.
Player Ratings
Henderson 6
Edwards 5
Chambers 3
Higginbotham 5
Cresswell 3
Drury 4
Martin 5
Wellens 5
Reo-Coker 5
Murphy 5
Campbell 5
Subs: Loach, Smith, Mohsni, N’Daw, Emmanuel-Thomas, Scotland, Chopra
