Brighton 2 Crystal Palace 1 – Glenn Murray scores winner against former club to settle FA Cup tie

Glenn Murray grabbed a late winner for Brighton & Hove Albion to send his former club Crystal Palace out of the FA Cup.

The former Eagles frontman refused to celebrate against his old employers, only a smile breaking across his face as the late substitute sealed the South Coast club’s passage into the fourth round and an away tie at Middlesbrough.

But the goal was desperately scrappy. Murray got the most minimal of contact virtually on the line to make sure that these arch rivals would not replay at Selhurst Park.

And with VAR in play for the first ever time in an English club game, there were questions about whether Murray’s arm helped the ball on its way.

Confirmation came afterwards that the new system had been used to help referee Andre Marriner with his decision.

Bakary Sako’s excellent finish from the edge of the box on 67 minutes had cancelled out Dale Stephens’ first-half opener. But then Murray earned Brighton the victory and denied Palace facing their old manager Tony Pulis on Teesside.

Both managers made changes with Premier League survival the order of the day, Chris Hughton outscoring Roy Hodgson 8-4 when it came to the switches made.

The first half belonged to Brighton.

They worked the wide areas better and at times were afforded time and space to get crosses in.

Palace could only pose the most intermittent of threats. Sako took advantage of Uwe Huenemeier misjudging the flight of the ball to streak into the box, beating the Albion number four once more for good measure, but drove against the legs of Tim Krul at his near post when a cutback might have been the better option.

The only other moment of note, and an indicator of how poor the Eagles had been in the final third, again saw Sako break into the penalty area – this time on the left, and his low cross was dealt with by Huenemeier as Andros Townsend waited to pounce at the back post.

Stephens’ goal was a poor one to concede on a couple of counts. Ezequiel Schelotto’s ball in just evaded Yohan Cabaye and the former Charlton midfielder got good power to drill past Wayne Hennessey at his near post. The goalkeeper will surely be unhappy that he did not deal with the strike, even if the marking in the build-up was virtually non-existent.

Palace were sent out early for the second half with Sullay Kaikai replacing Townsend, who appeared to have picked up a knock.

But it was still Brighton that created the better scoring opportunities, even if that remained half-chances in the early exchanges. Solly March horribly miscued Gaetan Bong’s cross.

Sako produced a sublime strike. He moved onto a loose ball and slammed a right-footed finish across Krul. The revitalised attacker kissed the AMEX Stadium turf before breaking into a dance move in front of the away fans.

The Palace goalscorer produced another power effort into the side-netting before Hemed saw his shot come off Hennessey’s left post with Beram Kayal hammering the ball over when it was slotted across to him by March in the same attack.

Sam Baldock raced into a great position on 82 minutes but the ball – as if on a magnet in terms of the end shooting position when the hosts got into prime locations on the pitch – soared into the stands.

The winner saw Huenemeier climb highest to head a free-kick back across the face of goal. It looked to be going in anyway but Murray, like any good poacher, made sure as it took the slightest deflection off his thigh before it nestled in the net. Replays showed that his arm was also pushed towards the ball as he tried to make sure of its final destination.