Report & Highlights: Late Devenny winner sees Palace beat Forest

Summary

• Powell makes three changes from win at Gillingham

• 9: Mustapha sees an attempt from 25-yards saved

• 26: Mustapha has another effort saved by Bott

• 39: Marsh manages to turn and shoot inside the box, but Bott saves once more

• 41: Forest’s best chance of the half from McAdam is wide of the mark

• HT: Palace 0-0 Forest

• 51: Nascimento almost curls one in early on in the second-half

• 60: Umolu nets the opener on the hour-mark

• 64: Kporha forces a save from Bott

• 73: Moulden tips a corner over that was sneaking in

• 82: Forest equalise through an unfortunate Grehan own goal

• 88: Devenny seals the points with a well-taken winner

• FT: Palace 2-1 Forest

After successfully beating the first-team side of Gillingham in the EFL Trophy last Tuesday, Crystal Palace Under-21s were back on home soil as they welcomed Nottingham Forest U21s to the VBS Community Stadium.

There were three changes to the side which won at Priestfield, with Seán Grehan, Adler Nascimento and Zach Marsh returning to the starting XI in place of Rob Holding, Franco Umeh and Asher Agbinone.

Hindolo Mustapha had Palace’s best chance early on, with a shot from 25-yards out, but it was seen all the way by Aaron Bott in the Forest goal.

The half, under tricky conditions in the wind and rain, went on with little-to-no chances for either side. Mustapha had another shot saved, while Marsh also saw his effort on the turn saved while under pressure from the Forest defence.

The visitor’s best chance of the half came through Kyle McAdam, though the midfielder skewed his effort wide on the edge of the box after a strong Forest breakaway.

There was much to do for both sides in the second-half, and Palace came out the brighter. Adler Nascimento saw a curling effort go narrowly wide of the post just five minutes after the restart.

Palace kept the pressure on after a strong start to the second-half, and on the hour-mark Jemiah Umolu opened the scoring with his sixth goal of the season.

Nascimento played an excellent ball for Marsh to run onto and he managed to cut it back across into the path of Umolu to finish from close range.

A second was almost on the cards immediately for Palace, as Caleb Kporha cut inside and fired an effort goal, though Bott was equal to it and managed to keep it out.

Forest started to grow back into the game in the 25 minutes that remained, enjoying more of the ball and starting to create chances of their own. A flurry of corners saw Louie Moulden called into action as he tipped one over the bar that looked like it was creeping in.

An equaliser for the visitors eventually came from a corner. An initial ball into the box fell to Joe Gardner and the striker’s shot cannoned back off the crossbar and unfortunately deflected off of Grehan on the line.

Palace displayed great morale and character to not falter after the Forest equaliser and pushed on for all three points. The winner eventually came with two minutes of normal time remaining.

Kporha floated a ball into the box that Forest couldn’t properly clear. Nascimento’s effort was blocked and it fell perfectly for captain Justin Devenny to curl home a great finish low and hard into the corner past Bott.

Devenny’s goal saw five minutes of time added on, but the Eagles managed to see off any hopes of another Forest equaliser. The result means Powell’s side move up to 10th in the Premier League 2, ahead of the big clash against Brighton on Saturday.

Palace: Moulden (GK), Kporha, Browne, Grehan, Jemide, Rodney, Nascimento, Devenny, Umolu, Mustapha, Marsh (Gibbard, 90).

Subs not used: Izquierdo (GK), Grante, Austin, Akinwale.

Forest: Bott (GK), Da Silva Moreira (Hammond, 88), Powell, Thompson, Abbott, Perry (Berry, 73), Sinclair, McAdam, Gardner (Anijsko, 88), Nadin (Brown, 66), Perkins.

Sub not used: Griffiths (GK).