Keith Millen hails Crystal Palace strikers after Charlton romp

“It is a nice problem to have going into the weekend”.

Pardew’s side stepped up a gear after the break and broke the deadlock within six minutes of the restart.

Wilfried Zaha was the liveliest presence in the Palace attack, the winger heading Chung-Yong Lee’s cross just too high and fizzing Campbell’s lay-off across goal and wide. Palace, though, did double their advantage after Diarra bundled over Campbell in the area and Gayle slammed the resulting spot-kick home.

The defender had already been booked for the first penalty, but ref Neil Swarbrick this time showed his a straight red card for a professional foul before Gayle hit the net again.

Wedged in between Gayle’s brace, Naby Sarr headed home from a corner, although Wayne Hennessey will feel he perhaps should have done better.

And Gayle took full advantage of that numerical disadvantage four minutes from the end by completing his hat-trick with a header from Lee’s corner.

But Palace wrapped up their win with another Gayle penalty nine minutes later, after Diarra was dismissed for fouling Patrick Bamford. “I played against them for Birmingham and I got a lot of stick for it, but I accept that”.

“It was nice to see Adrian Mariappa, Dwight Gayle and Fraizer Campbell getting some game time and getting their match sharpness”.

Looking ahead to tonight’s derby, Ambrose was asked if he was expecting a good game and replied: “I think so”.

“I’ve stated many times how much I want us to progress as far as we possibly can in this tournament as we attempt to get some silverware in the cabinet”.

Pardew added: “When we got relegated the impact of that relegation wasn’t really made clear to me when I joined how financially damaging it was”.

“As long as he keeps enjoying himself then it is a pleasure to watch him”.

“It’ll be a great game and hopefully Palace will win!” “We want to go as far as we can, we are in the last 16 and it’s been a while since we had a cup run”.