Palace made the long trip to south Wales knowing that a win would take them above Cardiff City in the table.

Neil Warnock made three changes from the starting line-up against Scunthorpe on Saturday with Tom Soares returning from his three-match suspension in place of Carl Fletcher, who limped off on Saturday, new-loanee signing Clint Hill (wearing the No.4 shirt) replacing Tony Craig at left back and history-man John Bostock replacing Bezian Idrizaj. 

The bench saw another youngster, Victor Moses, who returned after injury and scoring a brace for the U18s last Saturday, alongside the fit-again Paul Ifill as well as Clinton Morrison, Carl Fletcher and Scott Flinders.

Within the first few seconds of the kick-off James Scowcroft went down with a back injury, but was soon up and about as Palace looked sharp going forward, with youngster John Bostock pulling the strings from the centre of the park, just behind Scowcroft.

Palace's first chance of the half came in the seventh minute when Ben Watson's shot was saved easily by Kasper Schmeichel in the Cardiff nets.

Cardiff then took the bit between their teeth and in the ninth minute Palace captain Mark Hudson was called up to clear for a corner from a Tony Capaldi cross.

From the resulting Paul Parry corner though the Cardiff captain and former Birmingham man, Darren Purse, rose to head home and put the Bluebirds 1-0 up. The Welsh side didn't let up there though and just a minute later Hudson was called into action again as he slid to clear a cross from the lively Joe Ledley.

Palace then applied some pressure of their own as in the 15th minute, following good work from Franck Songo'o, John Bostock snapped a left-footed shot from 20 yards caught Schmeichel unawares and the Dane could only parry the ball away to a defender who cleared the danger.

Gavin Rae shot just wide for Cardiff in the 28th minute following a poor clearance by Hudson, but the big midfielder should have really hit the target as Palace found themselves prone to quick counter-attacks from the home side, led by the lively left-winger, Joe Ledley.

Just a minute before half time though Palace equalised from the penalty spot after Tom Soares was adjudged to have been brought down in the box by defender Tony Capaldi.

The second half saw Neil Warnock make a double substitution with a welcome return to First Team action for Paul Ifill, who replaced Franck Songo'o, whilst Clinton Morrison replaced James Scowcroft.

John Bostock moved to left midfield from centre midifield, swapping positions with Mark Kennedy, whilst Tom Soares moved to the right side of midfield, taking Songo'o's first half position.

The first action of the second period fell to the home side as Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink sprung the offside trap, turning Jose Fonte and then shooting low into the well-positioned Julian Speroni in the 52nd minute.

Six minutes later Paul Parry again caused problems down Palace's left side, but his dangerous low cross was safely steered away for a corner by Matt Lawrence.

With Palace having the better of possession, Dave Jones introduced Steve Thompson for the quiet Robbie Fowler.  Moments after his introduction Thompson was booked alongside Matt Lawrence for unsporting behaviour.

In the 67th minute a pinpoint cross from Mark Kennedy found Paul Ifill in space, who turned inside Capaldi only to see his shot go out for a corner.  From the corner the ball fell again to Ifill whose right-foot shot was heading for the top corner before being plucked out of the air by Schmeichel.

Victor Moses was then brought on in place of Bostock in the wide left position to make his debut for Palace as Neil Warnock searched for the winner, but it was Cardiff who looked the most likely especially when, in the 85th minute, Hasselbaink should have scored from just two yards out but his header lacked conviction and Speroni gathered on his line for Palace to return to SE25 with a well-earned point and successful debuts for Moses and Hill.

Cardiff City : Schmeichel, McNaughton, Purse, Johnson, Capaldi, Parry (Sinclair 79), McPhail, Rae, Ledley, Fowler (Thompson 60) , Hasselbaink,

Subs not used: Oakes, Loovens, Whittingham

Crystal Palace : Speroni, Lawrence, Hudson, Fonte, Hill, Watson, Bostock (Moses 72), Songo'o (Ifill H/T), Soares, Kennedy, Scowcroft (Morrison H/T).

Subs not used: Flinders, Fletcher

Bookings: Cardiff -  Thompson (63)      Palace - Songo'o (45+1), Lawrence (63), Morrison (83)

Attendance: 11,781