Burnley 2 - 3 Crystal Palace

<div>Palace began their League campaign with a fine win at Turf Moor. But it was not without incident, as both Wayne Routledge and Shaun Derry were shown the red card. Dougie Freedman opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, with a penalty after he himself had been brought down. Burnley equalised with a free kick following a foul by Routledge, which the referee deemed to be a straight red, as he was the last defender. The ref initially awarded a penalty, but, after consulting his linesman changed his mind and gave a free kick just outside the penalty area. It did not make any difference as the free kick was smashed passed the Palace wall and into the far corner of the net. Burnley took the lead with a drive from the right hand edge of the box which was deflected passed Matt Clarke into the top corner. There was still more to come from Palace as Freedman brought the sides level with a solo goal following a defensive mix up, as he rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the unguarded net from an acute angle.<BR>Shaun Derry was shown the red card for a typical Derry tackle. Having been cautioned earlier, he went straight through the back of one of the Burnley players, to receive his second yellow, and with it, an early bath. Now down to 9 men, you could have forgiven Palace if they had collapsed like a pack of cards, but, instead they could have taken the lead several times before Freedman got on the end of Andy Johnsons cross, which the keeper could only parry into his path for the easiest of headers to give Palace the three points.<BR>Palace can take a lot of positives from this game, firstly the three points, but moreover there appears to be a never say die mentality amongst the players which was not apparent last season. This attitude will be needed in abundance if we are to mount a serious promotion charge, but at least we have got off to a flyer.</div>