Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion have played out a goalless draw in the first leg of their Championship playoff semi-final at Selhurst Park.
Despite a number of opportunities for both sides, they will start Monday's return leg at the Amex Stadium with the scores level on aggregate.
© PA Photos
The contest started frantically but it was the visitors who nearly took the lead with seven minutes played when Leonardo Ulloa headed wide from Wayne Bridge's cross.
Palace were up the other end soon after as Jonathan Williams saw his low effort fly narrowly past the post.
Brighton continued to enjoy the majority of possession and they carved out a great opening midway through the half when Dean Hammond's close-range header looked to be going in. However, Julian Speroni pulled off a reaction save to keep the scores level.
Hammond was involved again with 32 minutes on the clock as his shot from the edge of the box was sliced wide, while the away side created one final chance in first-half stoppage time when Ulloa smashed the ball high and wide from another Bridge cross.
Palace began the second half strongly and had an early opportunity through Wilfried Zaha, whose tame drive was collected by Tomasz Kuszczak.
The hosts looked the more likely to score and Kuszczak was called into action again on the hour as he combined with Ulloa to scramble Danny Gabbidon's header off the line form a corner.
Hammond then had two weak efforts saved by Speroni, while Kagisho Dikgacoi had his shot cleared inside a manic Brighton penalty area late on.
Jack Prescott
