Five-star Palace deepen McClaren’s gloom
Palace 5
Newcastle 1
Yannick Bolasie and James McArthur each scored twice in a 5-1 victory as Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew heaped fresh misery on his Newcastle United successor Steve McClaren yesterday. Beaten 3-0 at home by Leicester City last weekend, Newcastle’s defense was torn apart again as Pardew, who left St James’ Park in January, sent his old club back into the Premier League relegation zone.
Newcastle took a 10th-minute lead through Papiss Cisse at Selhurst Park, but exSunderland striker Connor Wickham set up goals for McArthur, Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha to put the hosts 3-1 up by half-time. Bolasie and McArthur netted again in the second half, sealing Palace’s first win over Newcastle since March 1998 and ramping up the pressure on the beleaguered McClaren, whose side host Liverpool next weekend.
Palace climb four places to sixth in the table, while Newcastle drop into the bottom three, two points from safety. While Palace were unchanged, Newcastle made two changes, with Cisse and the fit-again Jack Colback replacing Aleksandar Kolarov and the injured Cheick Tiote. The newcomers were quick to leave a mark. Colback became embroiled in a flare-up with Zaha after chopping the Palace winger down in the early stages and after the dust had settled, Cisse nodded in Daryl Janmaat’s cross to put Newcastle ahead. But Newcastle’s lead was to last just four minutes as Wickham did brilliantly to hold off Fabricio Coloccini and tee up McArthur for a shot that found the net via a sizeable deflection off Paul Dummett.
The visitors’ defending left much to be desired and three minutes later Palace went in front when Wickham’s low cross was allowed to reach Bolasie, who drilled in at the back post. Palace extended their lead in the 41st minute with Wickham again the provider, the former England Under-21 international crossing for Zaha to score with a volley that hit the turf and looped over Rob Elliot. Any hopes of a Newcastle comeback were dashed within two minutes of kick-off in the second period when Bolasie pounced on a Damian Delaney knock-down to deepen the misery of the travelling fans. McArthur completed the rout in stoppage time, finishing from close range after Bolasie’s cross was not cleared.— AFP