Crystal Palace 1 - 0 Birmingham

Palace's Kagisho Dikgacoi is congratulated after scoring his first league goal

Crystal Palace earned their first home win since October with a hard-fought victory over Birmingham.

Kagisho Dikgacoi scored the winner with seven minutes to go with a near-post header from a Darren Ambrose cross.
Until Dikgacoi's intervention it was the goalkeepers who were on top. Palace's Julian Speroni pulled off a top class save from Stephen Caldwell.
And Boaz Myhill dived full-length to palm out Aussie Mile Jedinak's stinging 25-yard volley in the first-half.
Carling Cup semi-finalists Palace had lost just one of their 10 home games this season while Birmingham had been beaten in six of their 10 away games so far.
Ambrose returned to the starting line up for Palace to replace suspended teenage winger
Wilfried Zaha and the Blues welcomed back skipper Stephen Carr.
Match Fact
Birmingham have not won on the road since their visit to Bristol City on 23 October
The game sprung into life after 20 minutes when Birmingham midfielder Nathan Redmond let fly from outside the box.
His stunning drive caught Speroni off guard but the Palace keeper managed to scramble the ball away for a corner.
Two minutes later and it was Blues' keeper Myhill who was put to the test, pulling off a brilliant reflex save from Jedinak.
Palace kept up the pressure and only an expertly-timed tackle from David Murphy prevented Nathaniel Clyne opening the scoring after a clever one-two with Sean Scannell.
Jedinak went in the book for unsporting behaviour just before half-time but Murphy's free-kick went straight into the hands of Speroni.
Davies received a yellow after 65 minutes for bringing down Scannell on the edge of the box. Ambrose lined up the free-kick but his right-foot shot went straight into the wall.
Palace were camped in the Birmingham box for most of the second half, and Paddy McCarthy thumped the ball against the side of the post.
And their pressure paid off in the 83rd minute when Ambrose curled in a precision cross from the right.
Dikgacoi outjumped the defence on the edge of the near-post goal area to direct the ball over the helpless Myhill.
Crystal Palace manager Dougie Freedman:
"It was a fantastic header and Darren put in a fantastic cross.
"Everyone understands the game plan, we've no big stars, no heroes, we win and lose together and tonight underlined that.
"We kept on plugging away, we refused to let one in our net and we had the desire to put one in Birmingham's net."
Birmingham manager Chris Hughton:
"In the last 20 minutes I still thought we would get a draw at least. It could have gone either way.
"We have gone through a lot of games in a short period of time, but these are the things we need to get on with.
"Over the 90 minutes I thought we deserved to get more out of the game. But we didn't defend their opportunity well enough."

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Portsmouth 1 - 1 Southampton

Rickie Lambert (left) and Ricardo Rocha clash in a feisty game at Fratton Park

Joel Ward's brave late header earned Portsmouth a point from an uninspiring south coast derby against Southampton.

Pompey had the only two decent chances of a drab first half, but both David Norris and Greg Halford shot wide.
The visitors went ahead when Rickie Lambert headed in his 17th goal this season from Daniel Fox's free-kick.
Guly do Prado twice almost added to Saints' lead with low strikes, but Ward headed in from close range after good work by George Thorne to rescue a draw.

Pompey boy Ward delight at derby finish

Pompey were good value for their point, but having slipped behind on 62 minutes they seemed unlikely to be able to prevent their bitter rivals restoring their three-point lead at the top of the Championship table.
A tedious first half with plenty of endeavour and crunching challenges offered little in the way of quality, barring the odd flash of class from Southampton's Adam Lallana.

DID YOU KNOW?

Continue reading the main story The club top at Christmas have gone on to gain promotion to the Premier League in five of the last six seasons

A low bobbling strike from Norris and Halford's 20-yard free-kick were as good as it got in terms of goalmouth incident in the opening 45 minutes.
But things improved after the interval and Lambert looked the likely match-winner when he glanced in Fox's vicious, inviting free-kick.

Saints' Rickie Lambert 'gutted' by Pompey late-show

Do Prado then spurned two good chances to wrap up the win, shooting wide with the first effort and seeing his second strike well blocked by on-rushing home goalkeeper Stephen Henderson.
It seemed inevitable that Saints would double their advantage, but it was Pompey who scored the second and final goal of the game when Ward jumped highest to head home Thorne's knock-back.
Portsmouth boss Michael Appleton said: "Joel can probably appreciate the importance of that goal more than the rest of the players. You could tell that with his celebration.
"Growing up as a Portsmouth lad and fan, he has probably dreamt about doing that for a while.
"He has popped up with a couple of goals recently, which is fantastic for him. He looks like he has a new lease of life about him."
Southampton manager Nigel Adkins said: "There are 10 or 15 teams with aspirations of getting into the Premier League. I just wanted to be in with a shout and be in the top 10. We would have been happy with that.
"We've led that race for over three months now. That shows we have a consistency about our play and we have good players.
"We play the right way and score a lot of goals. Our desire is to pick up more clean sheets and results away from home now."

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