Crystal Palace 2 Coventry City 0

Coventry City's season went from bad to worse inside 60 seconds at Selhurst Park last night.

The Sky Blues manager Micky Adams sent out his side with a five-man defence in a bid to stifle Crystal Palace's free-scoring attack.

And who could blame him after Iain Dowie's side crashed four past City when the teams met last month at the Ricoh Arena.

But any hope Coventry had of ruffling the Eagles' feathers soon disappeared as the home team cracked in the opening goal after only a minute.

Left back Marcus Hall was exposed by the pace of Palace winger Wayne Andrews who fired into the net from the edge of the area.

And the match was as good as over when the home team's full-back Emmerson Boyce bundled in the second just after the half-hour.

To add to Coventry's woes, Hull City earned a point against Southampton which means the Sky Blues slipped into the Championship's bottom three.

It means Coventry's imminent three home matches in a row will have a huge bearing on whether they can beat the drop to the third tier of English football. Frustratingly for their small band of supporters and their increasingly disillusioned manager, they once again showed that they can compete at this level but were found wanting in both boxes.

After Andrews' opener they could have fallen two or three behind inside the first ten minutes as the five-man back line struggled to cope with the Palace attack.

Former Birmingham striker Clinton Morrison broke free of the offside trap and would have scored but for an excellent stop from keeper Marton Fulop.

Then Dougie Freedman went close but once again Coventry's on loan shot stopper was equal to it.

Midfielder Michael Doyle had endured a rocky opening to the match but he soon began to stamp his authority and almost set up an equaliser for Gary McSheffrey but the little striker headed over from five yards.

Doyle then tried his luck from distance on two or three occasions - each time hitting the target only to be denied by Gabor Kiraly.

Claus Jorgensen was struggling to keep up with the pace of the game in midfield but he almost fired City level in the 20th minute when he curled a shot from 25 yards which dipped just over the Palace crossbar.

And then James Scowcroft came close when he slid in at the back post to meet McSheffrey's cross but once again Kiraly was there to maintain Palace's lead.

Just when it looked as if Coventry would dominate up to half time, they conceded another sloppy goal. They failed to deal with a cross from Andrews and as the ball pinballed around the box it was stopped on the line by Fulop, but Boyce was there to force it into the net.

Coventry's in-form striker Dele Adebola was largely anonymous but in the 49th minute he led a break-out which should have resulted in the Sky Blues reducing the deficit. He found McSheffrey in acres of space on the edge of the area but the striker's touch let him down and the real chance was gone and as the ball fell back to Scowcroft he was hopelessly off target from the edge of the area.

Adams sent on Andy Morrell and Kevin Thornton with 20 minutes to go in a bid to spark life into the team and once again the young midfielder pepped up City's performance. With just under 15 minutes left his cross found Matt Heath and his downward header put the ball on a plate for Morrell, he fired over on the turn.

Although Palace had gone into their shells somewhat in the second half they could have easily added to their lead at the death as Morrison crashed the ball against the crossbar in the final minute before Jon Macken forced another good save from Fulop.