Bakary Sako marked his Crystal Palace debut with an 88th-minute winner in this afternoon's 2-1 win over Aston Villa at Selhurst Park.

The clash seemed destined to be heading for a draw after Pape Souare's own goal cancelled out Scott Dann's opener in the final quarter.

However, the ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers winger drilled home the winner in the dying minutes of normal time.

Here, Sports Mole analyses how the players fared.

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Goal

Alex McCarthy: Blameless for the goal more or less and pulled off a good save to deny Agbonlahor in a one-on-one in the opening quarter. (7/10)

Defence

Joel Ward: Struggled with the movement of Agbonlahor and the guile of Amavi in the first half, but looked far more assured after the break. (6/10)

Scott Dann: Guilty of a few slack passes in the first half which led to Villa chances, but made amends and thensome with a powerful thumping header in the final quarter. (7/10)

Damien Delaney: Expertly dealt with the physical threat of Gestede in both halves as he kept the Frenchman relatively quiet throughout. (6/10)

Pape Souare: Looked relatively solid for the entire game and was so unlucky to concede the own goal following Traore's mazy run. (7/10)

Midfield

Wilfried Zaha:Hauled off at half time following a lifeless 45 minutes in which he failed to trouble right-back Leandro Bacuna enough. Poor overall from the winger. (4/10)

Yohan Cabaye: Got an assist for the goal but overall looked sluggish and nowhere near worth his club-record £12.8m price-tag. (6/10)

James McArthur: Debate will rage over his offside goal, but other than that, the Scottish international was cool and calm in midfield for the most part, but struggled for the first half-an-hour or so. (6/10)

Jason Puncheon: Had one or two hopeful efforts but nothing that really tested Guzan. (5/10)

Bakary Sako: Anonymous first 45 minutes on his debut, but came to life when he was shifted to his favoured wide role and fired home a fine winner in the closing minutes to snatch all three points. (7/10)

Attack

Glen Murray: Also pulled off at the break following a first half in which he had very little impact - although he did lack plenty of service from his supporting players. (4/10)

Substitutes

Dwight Gayle: A half-time introduction and Gayle looked infinitely more involved than Murray, and fired the shot that led to the controversial disallowed goal. (6/10)

Jordan Mutch: After replacing Zaha, Mutch was another inspired sub by Pardew and he nearly had an instant assist when his cross for Sako was almost converted. (6/10)

Goal

Brad Guzan: Perhaps could have done better for Sako's winner, but could do nothing about Dann's header. Very little to do other than both goals. (5/10)

Defence

Leandro Bacuna: Did not get forward as much as he would have hoped, and provided little contribution when he did manage to attack. (5/10)

Micah Richards: Ridiculously unlucky to be on the losing side today, and pulled off a goal-saving intervention early in the second half. A true captain's performance by the ex-Manchester City starlet. (7/10)

Ciaran Clark: Was too easily out-muscled by Dann in the build-up to Crystal Palace's opener on the 72-minute mark. Okay other than that. (5/10)

Jordan Amavi: Directly at fault for the defeat after inexplicably running the ball out of defence, before being punished with the ultimate penalty. Bizarrely, actually had a very good game overall. (5/10)

Midfield

Ashley Westwood: Sat in front of Villa's back four well - especially in the first half - but his delivery from set pieces left a little to be desired. (6/10)

Carlos Sanchez: Superb in the first half as he wrestled the ball away from a number of Villans regularly, but faded somewhat after the break like a number of his teammates. (6/10)

Jack Grealish: Villa's best player in the first half, and was not bad in the second half but his decision making became increasingly poor as the minutes ticked on. (6/10)

Idrissa Gueye: Contributed very little in both halves and found himself unable to influence things from his wide role. (4/10)

Attack

Gabriel Agbonlahor: Could, and should, have opened the scoring on 14 minutes but fluffed a one-on-one with McCarthy. Disappointing overall. (4/10)

Rudy Gestede: Started brightly but it became increasingly obvious that Delaney was not going to let him trouble his defensive teammates this afternoon. (5/10)

Substitutes

Adama Traore: Offered a glimpse into his immense potential with an excellent run that proved instrumental in Villa's equaliser. (8/10)

Written by
Shane Callaghan