CRYSTAL PALACE 3
Popovic 51 (pen), Granville 83, Hughes 87

WAlSALL 0Danny Granville's 25-yard curling strike was the pick of the Palace goals as the Eagles secured their passage through to the second round of the Carling Cup, writes Stuart Pink.

Iain Dowie made 10 changes to the team which beat Plymouth last Saturday, with Wayne Andrews the only suvivor from the Eagles' first win of the season.

In fact it was to be quite an eventful night for Andrews, who had plenty of chances but couldn't quite find the target.

Despite their League One status, Walsall, led by player manager Paul Merson who was the best player on the pitch, dominated the first half as the woodwork denied both Mark Wright and Jorge Leitao in an impressive opening spell.

Andrews wasted the Eagles' best opportunity of the half when he shot wide after Walsall keeper Andy Oakes spilled a shot straight into the path of the former Colchester striker.

After the break Palace took an undeserved lead when Danny Butterfield's shot from outside the box struck Walsall defender Daniel Fox on the arm to gift the Eagles a penalty.

Captain Tony Popovic stepped to place the spot kick home to make it 1-0.

Both sides proceeded to make a number of changes which interfered with the game's flow as the teams struggled to make chances.

But Danny Granville quashed any fears of a Walsall comeback when he scored the goal of the game in the 82nd minute.

The former Chelsea defender made a short burst towards the left hand side of the box and as it looked as if he had ran out of ideas, he pushed the ball to his unfavoured right foot and curled the ball into the top left hand corner of the net from 25 yards. Michael Hughes finished off the scoring in the 87th minute when he followed up substitute Lewis Grabban's shot which was spilled by Oakes into his path to make it 3-0.

PALACE STAR MAN: Michael Hughes: Strong performance by Hughes which was capped with a goal.

PALACE: Speroni 7, Fray 7 (Togwell 54 6), Hudson 7, Popovic 7, Granville 7, Kolkka 6 (Berry 78 6), Hughes 7, Riihilahti 7, Butterfield 7, Black 7(Grabban 6), Andrews 6.