Townsend helps knock old club Tottenham out of the FA Cup
Crystal Palace's Andros Townsend scores his side's second goal of the game against Tottenham Hotspur from the penalty spot during the FA Cup fourth round match at Selhurst Park (pic: Victoria Jones/PA Images). - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
FA Cup fourth round: Crystal Palace 2 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Tottenham Hotspur were dumped out of the FA Cup following a 2-0 defeat away to Crystal Palace.
First-half goals put the hosts in the driving seat and despite a spirited display after the break from Mauricio Pochettino’s team, they suffered a second consecutive loss - days after the penalty shoot-out exit to Chelsea in the League Cup semi-finals.
Spurs made seven changes for their FA Cup fourth-round clash at Palace. Fernando Llorente was handed another start in attack while Georges-Kevin Nkoudou was named in starting XI. Ben Davies and Moussa Sissoko missed out through injury.
Connor Wickham started up front for Crystal Palace, but there were no places in the squad for new signings Lucas Perri or Bakary Sako.
Palace took a ninth-minute lead when Jeff Schlupp’s shot was saved by goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga, but he could only push the ball into the path of Wickham and he converted off his thigh.
The home side extended their advantage midway through the half after Kyle Walker-Peters handled in the penalty area with Wickham lurking.
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Former Spurs winger Andros Townsend stepped up and slammed the resulting spot-kick straight down the middle to make it 2-0.
After Townsend missed another decent opportunity for Palace, Nkoudou saw two efforts saved by Julian Speroni.
Tottenham were awarded a penalty of their own when Patrick Van Aanholt brought down Juan Foyth, but Kieran Trippier fired well wide to ensure the Eagles took a 2-0 lead into the break.
It was one-way traffic in the second half as Spurs tried in vain to get themselves back into the tie.
Substitute Erik Lamela provided a spark and Llorente forced another good save from Speroni, while at the other end Gazzaniga denied Zaha a third goal, but the Eagles held on to go through.
