Phillips Saves The Day

Bristol Rovers knocked Championship side Crystal Palace out of the first round of the Carling Cup.

Paul Trollope made a few changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Port Vale on Saturday. In came Williams and Haldane for Jacobson and Lambert. Walker had the first chance of the evening when he forced a good save from the Palace keeper. 31 minutes on the clock and Palace took the lead, Freedman fired in a free kick from the edge of the area.

Shefki Kuqi then forced Phillips in to a good save, before Walker put the last chance of the half just wide.

Much of the same in the second half with both teams creating chances. Lewis Haldane Blazed the ball over from close range, that was the winger`s last contribution before being subbed. On came Lambert and Jacobson, the pair changed the game almost instantly. Lambert fed through Craig Disley who slotted the ball home.

Walker and Pipe both had good efforts saved well by the Palace keeper before the ref blow for full time. In extra time Kuqi and Freedman both wasted good chances before Elliott made a fantastic goal line clearance to take the game in to penalties.

Walker, Jacobson and Disley all scored their penalties while Freedman had his penalty saved well by Phillips and Kuqi hit the woodwork. It was left for Anthony to step up and score the winning goal.

David Pipe- Another solid performance from Pipe. Palace have some good players, even though they rested a few, but we got to grips with the game more in the second half and got our passing going better.

'I thought we deserved to equalise after they had gone ahead. We were never going to dominate a game against higher-graded opposition and they had more clear-cut chances.

'But we felt we had more momentum in the second half. We got a bit sloppy with our passing in extra-time and I think maybe people were getting a bit tired.

'But there was some good last-ditch defending and I was pleased we came through.

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