Hotshot Ayew back with a bang

WILFRIED ZAHA might have forgotten how to score, but Palace won’t be worrying about that too much.

Jordan Ayew celebrated his recall to the side with a crucial 83rd-minute deadlock-breaker to stun Wolves.

Palace added a second with the very last kick – a Luka Milivojevic penalty after Zaha had been sent tumbling by Ryan Bennett.

Palace boss Roy Hodgson only made one change – bringing in Ayew for Jeff Schlupp – and saw it give him a bumper pay-off.

Ayew was right on the spot to ram the ball home from eight yards as Palace finally made the breakthrough.

Up to that point it had been a pretty uneventful game with neither side really taking things by the scruff of the neck.

As it seemed to be fading to an unmemorable stalemate, Ayew stepped up and put a whole new look on it.

Zaha was involved and that’s just as well really because he’s not having the best of times in front of goal. This was the 14th game on the spin that Palace’s main man has failed to find the net.

But he’ll point to an invaluable assist in the lead up to Ayew’s decisive late strike.

Zaha had already sparked a game of ping pong in the Wolves box which saw about four players having shots blocked.

But when the ball came back to him on the left, he played it out to Patrick van Aanholt, who sent it to the edge of the six-yard box where Ayew was lurking.

He made no mistake, killing it dead with his right before steering a shot into the net with his left.

Wolves were stunned and had shown little to suggest that they might claw it back, though they gave Palace a real scare when sub Ruben Neves lashed in a 25-yarder which forced the keeper into a good save.

Both managers would have fancied nabbing all three points after the shadow boxing of the first half.

Serious

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo can’t have been happy at his side’s failure to make any serious inroads on the Palace goal before the break.

When they did, they got it horribly wrong – Willy Boly messing up a great chance from an Ivan Cavaleiro corner a few minutes before the interval. The big defender found himself with time and an obscene amount of space eight yards out but he failed to get any sort of proper contact and the ball was flying out of play wide of the post when Matt Doherty tried to retrieve things.

In fairness, the ball was travelling at such a pace that it restricted his ability to steer it properly and the ball flew over.

Palace huffed and puffed on occasions but, similarly, rarely failed to trouble Rui Patricio in the Wolves goal.