CRYSTAL PALACE 0
SAMSUNSPOR 2
While the holidaying Terry Venables basked in the sun, his Palace team toiled and faded in the same glorious summer sunshine at Selhurst Park on Sunday, writes Owen Phillips.
Though Venables has already expressed his reservations about Palace's Intertoto European adventure, Palace fielded an almost full strength side but could only watch in horror as they conspired to hand their Turkish visitors a two goal first leg advantage.
Despite the defeat, coach Terry Fenwick said the Eagles were "totally committed" to the return leg in Turkey on Saturday (July 25). Commitment will probably not be enough. Palace were outclassed for long spells and the margin of victory should have been greater but for some poor finishing and a hopelessly skied late penalty.
Palace started brightly enough and threatened to take control with the lively Lombardo and sublime dribbling skills of Sasa Curcic wreaking havoc.
But from the moment a catastrophic collision between Kevin Miller and the otherwise impressive youngster Anthony Folan gifted Samsunspor their first goal in the 14th minute the result seemed inevitable.
A deep cross tempted Miller out of his goal only for him to run straight into Folan allowing the ball to be nodded back for a simple far post tap-in by Dagdelen.
Several mazy runs from Curcic apart, Palace struggled to break down their highly organised opponents and were staring certain defeat in the face when the visitors grabbed a weak second 11 minutes into the second half.
A needlessly conceded free-kick 25 yards out trickled into the wall but a cruel deflection took it past the hapless and already committed Miller.
All the pre-season and post World Cup optimism which attracted a bumper 11,758 crowd disappeared as the scoreline took on a familiar feel. And though Palace battled well enough the lack of fitness as this early pre-season stage began to tell.
Terry Fenwick said: "The opposition are probably five to six weeks ahead of us in preparation; they're well into their season."
He added: "It's the first time they've completed 90 minutes - we were very tired and allowed the Turkish side to dominate." Terry Venables returns to link up with Palace later this week.
Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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