Joe Allen's sixth Premier League goal of the season ensured that Crystal Palace's relegation fears deepened as Stoke City beat Sam Allardyce's men 1-0 at the bet365 Stadium this afternoon.
Stoke began with greater endeavour and they almost took the lead when Peter Crouch produced an adroit flick-on for Marko Arnautovic, who saw his effort palmed away by Wayne Hennessey.
Palace responded in kind, though, as James McArthur found Andros Townsend, before producing an industrious run to meet his teammate's cross, only to send his header inches wide of the Stoke goal.
Both teams sought to find an opener and it was Stoke who arguably came closest in the first period, this time as Ramadan Sobhi showed great skill to find a cross for Allen, who somehow headed over the bar from close range.
Townsend was one of Palace's more impressive performers in the first period and he soon came to the visitors' rescue, having cleared off the line from Bruno Martins Indi's header just before the half-time whistle.
Proceedings were slow going in the second period, but Allen brought the game back to life in the 67th minute, capping off some neat hold-up play from Sobhi in order to drill his shot down low beyond Hennessey to make it 1-0.
Palace laboured for an opening in the final minutes and they might have stolen a point had James Tomkins been a little more composed, but he could only lash high and wide following Jeffrey Schlupp's knock-down to leave Allardyce and company in trouble with 13 games left to play.
Christopher Dodd
