Crystal Palace 0 Middlesbrough 1: Emnes strikes again as gritty Boro make light of sending off

Marvin Emnes’s second-half strike sent the Teesiders to the top, despite having Joe Bennett sent off for two bookable offences in the 75th minute, leaving Mowbray delighted with his side’s commitment.

“The game panned out pretty much as I thought it would, and credit to Palace. I didn’t think it would be an expansive match with load of goals in it. To score against Palace is a difficult thing to do,” he said. “We can talk about the quality of the commitment, the quality and the grit of the side was shown today, but we’ve won more comfortably in the past.

“For the sending off, I remember the days when you could tackle. But that is no criticism of the official, he made some great decisions, even though we can all be frustrated on the sidelines. It’s unfortunate for Joe.”

Palace had the better of the first half and Paddy McCarthy should have opened the scoring after 11 minutes when he headed wide Darren Ambrose’s free-kick.

A minute later, Jermaine Easter’s thundering drive from outside the away was tipped away by goalkeeper Carl Ikeme.

The visitors stunned the home fans 20 minutes into the second half when unmarked Emnes half-volleyed home to net his eighth goal of the campaign.

Substitute Glenn Murray nearly equalised with 14 minutes left but headed over from Mile Jedinak’s free-kick.

Easter should have levelled twith seven minutes remaining, as his close-range effort ricocheted off the bar and away to safety.

Palace manager Dougie Freedman felt his side lacked the experience to get the points.

Crystal Palace: Speroni, Ramage, McCarthy, Tunchev, Moxey, Parr (Murray 68), Jedinak, Wright (Williams 80),Ambrose (Zaha 66), Easter, Scannell. Unused substitutes: Price, Gardner.

Middlesbrough: Ikeme, McMahon, Bates, Haroun (McManus 79), Hoyte, Rhys Williams, Bailey, Robson, Bennett, Emnes, McDonald (Thomson 76). Unused substitutes: Zemmama, Kink, Martin.

Referee: G Sutton (Lincolnshire).

Man of the match: Marvin Emnes.