Crystal Palace secured a hard-fought three points against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
Alan Pardew's Eagles moved up to sixth position on the Premier League table with a third win in their past four outings thanks to a stunning winner from Lee Chung-yong to land a 2-1 result.
Palace went ahead on the stroke of half-time when Connor Wickham netted his first goal for the club when converting from the spot after Glenn Whelan had been penalised for clattering into Wilfried Zaha.
Bojan Krkic levelled for the Potters in the 76th minute with a well-taken penalty of his own following Damien Delaney's handball before Lee came off the bench to deliver an 88th-minute winner with a delightful effort from 25 yards which flew past Jack Butland.
The win has Palace placed nicely at Christmas while Mark Hughes' Stoke remained 11th following a sixth defeat of the campaign.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Stoke City: 1 (Bojan Krkic (PEN) 76')
Crystal Palace: 2 (Connor Wickham (PEN) 45+1', Lee Chung-yong 88')
Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent - 27,500
TALKING POINTS
- Palace continuing to land results. Can Pardew guide them into a possible European finish? Is the squad deep enough to keep winning?
- Despite impressing with attack and creativity, Stoke seriously lack actual goals. Does Hughes need a quality striker in January to offset this?
WHAT'S NEXT?
Stoke will be hoping to bounce back when they host Manchester United on Boxing Day when Palace head to Bournemouth in search of a third-straight win.
TWITTER INSIGHT
There's no one who enjoys a victory more than me. But after each defeat, life has to go on & we have to focus on the next game to try & win.
— Bojan Krkic (@BoKrkic) December 20, 2015lots of positives in the way we are creating chances but paid the price for not being clinical enough in front of goal! #SCFC
— Jack Butland (@JackButland_One) December 19, 2015Wow fantastic result buzzing for @ConnorWickham10 getting his 1st but the fans were amazing #Cpfc
— Wayne Hennessey (@WayneHennessey1) December 19, 2015
QUOTES CORNER
Palace's Pardew on Lee's fabulous goal:
"Amazing, wasn't it? It was a really great technical goal because his control to hit that side-footed, with that power, against the wind, was amazing. It obviously brought the house down on our bench."
Stoke boss Hughes on the disappointment of conceding a late goal:
"That's what happens - it's sport, you have to dust yourself down and keep going. Confidence wise we're not affected because I thought we did okay today."
TEAM LEADERS
Stoke
Goals - Marko Arnautovic 5
Assists - Xherdan Shaqiri 3
Clean sheets - Jack Butland 7
Yellow cards - Erik Pieters 6
Red cards - Charlie Adam, Ibrahim Afellay, Ryan Shawcross 1
Goals - Yohan Cabaye 5
Assists - Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha 3
Clean sheets - Wayne Hennessey 4
Yellow cards - Yohan Cabaye, Wilfried Zaha 4
Red cards - Dwight Gayle 1
