Crystal Palace 1 Swansea City 2: WATCH HIGHLIGHTS – Super sub Angel Rangel breaks Eagles hearts with last-gasp winner

ANGEL RANGEL was the unlikely hero as Swansea dragged Crystal Palace deeper into trouble with a 2-1 victory at Selhurst Park.

The defender came off the bench to pop up with the late winner to ensure new boss Paul Clement got off to a winning start as Sam Allardyce’s home debut ended dreafully.

After a dire opening, the match burst into life moments after the half hour mark when the Eagles were left enraged after being denied a penalty.

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Christian Benteke met a long punt forward by goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and found himself one-on-one with the visiting stopper.

The Belgian lifted the ball over Lukasz Fabianski but was sent tumbling to the ground, but the referee waved away all protests to leaving Allardyce and his side fuming.

Ten minutes later and Big Sam’s anger levels were raised again as Palace fell behind.

His defence just stood and watched as Gylfi Sigurdsson’s free-kick was met by the head of Mawson, and the centre-half flicked it inside the far post for his first Swansea goal.

Benteke, who suffered a shoulder thanks to the earlier challenge by Fabianski, was forced off at the break and replaced Fraizer Campbell.

The change certainly helped Palace to take control of the game, and Bakary Sako forced the visiting stopper into a change.

But it took until the 83rd-minute before the leveller arrived, when the impressive Zaha brilliantly volleyed home from the edge of the area from Martin Kelly’s cross.

Any hopes of a late turnaround were quickly ended through Rangel though, who darted through to meet a long ball and finish past Hennessey to claim the points with two minutes remaining.

STATS, FACTS, GOALS & LOLS

• Temperature watch at kick off: Selhurst Park 4 degrees C, Doha, where Paul Clement’s former employers Bayern Munich are spending a warm-weather training camp, 20.
• Caretaker Swansea boss Alan Curtis made four changes from the team which had crumbled to a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth and they seemed to work.

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• Sam Allardyce said he made substitutions against Arsenal to save players for this game. They rewarded him with an awful first-half display.
• Loud boos and “What the f***ing hell is that?” were the Palace fans’ quite reasonable reaction to the opening 45 minutes.
• Swansea defender Federico Fernandez is dangerous at both ends, heading over when it looked easier to score then almost causing his team to concede a penalty.

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• Fourth official Mike Dean must have been itching to award Palace a spot-kick when colleague Paul Tierney failed to punish Lukasz Fabianski for bringing down Christian Benteke.
• Without Gylfi Sigurdsson, Swansea would have even less hope of survival. His set-piece expertise is a crucial weapon in the war against relegation.
• Allardyce brought on Fraizer Campbell for the injured Benteke at the break and sent the rest of his players out early, too.

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• Andros Townsend’s lacklustre season continued as he was hooked early in the second half following another lacklustre display.
• Palace will feel they were unlucky, though, with Joe Ledley’s shot hitting Campbell and another penalty shout turned down.

BIG PICTURE

SOCIAL SAYS

DREAM TEAM RATINGS

Crystal Palace: Hennessey 6, Kelly 5 (Mutch 6, 90+1), Tomkins 6, Delaney 6, Ward 6, Ledley 6, Puncheon 6, Townsend 6 (Sako 6, 53), Cabaye 7, Zaha 7, Benteke 6 (Campbell 6, 45)

Subs not used: Speroni, Flamini, Lee Chung-yong, Phillips

Bookings: Kelly, Tomkins

Goal: Zaha (83)

Swansea: Fabianski 6, Naughton 7, Fernandez 7, Mawson 8, Taylor 7 (Rangel 7, 71), Fulton 6 (Fer 6, 69), Ki Sung-yueng 6, Cork 6, Routledge 6 (Dyer 6, 80), Llorente 7, Sigurdsson 8

Subs not used: van der Hoorn, Baston, Nordfeldt, Barrow

Bookings: Llorente

Goal: Mowson (42), Rangel (88)

STAR MAN: Mawson

WHAT THEY SAID

Crystal Palace manager Sam Allardyce: “What went wrong? Not enough recovery time, no doubt about that. The energy of the players just couldn’t get us in the faces of Swansea, they had an extra day and that told. You could see that.

“Our lads put so much in against Arsenal and you saw the effects of that. It wasn’t an even playing field.

“It’s difficult to take. We have all the science we have, we know the fatigue levels and the high intensity runs the players make and we knew they wouldn’t be able to make them tonight. And they couldn’t. Perhaps I picked the wrong side, I should have changed four or five.

“Whether you’re tired or not you have to play and I told them that at half time. I was baffled with our first-half display, we were lumping the ball to Christian Benteke and who told them to do that? They were confused.

“It was a blatant penalty on Christian Benteke, outrageous that it wasn’t given. That would have been a great lift.”

Swansea first-team coach Alan Curtis, who picked the team that beat Crystal Palace 2-1, said: “It is a terrific result for us and a huge three points. The first half performance, we were excellent and we could have gone in with more than the one goal.

“We have been accused of lacking character but we came back and won it and I thought we deserved it. In training you can see the players have the ability, it is just the confidence that has been lacking. We deserved some luck today.

“Any team under Sam Allardyce will come on strongly, they have some terrific players. We had 24 hours more rest compared to them and that may have made a difference.”