Crystal Palace held high-flying Brighton & Hove Albion to a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Saturday after James Tomkins capitalised on a calamitous error to cancel out Solly March’s opener.
The result leaves Brighton on 35 points in sixth place, while Palace are 12th with Patrick Vieira’s side yet to taste a league victory in 2023.
Brighton, who have not lost this year, were able to break through Palace’s defence numerous times in the first half, with Kaoru Mitoma seeing his angled shot denied by goalkeeper Vicente Guaita while Adam Webster also had a header go wide.
Pervis Estupinan had the ball in the net shortly after the half-hour mark but just as the Ecuadorian full back celebrated what he thought was his first goal for Brighton, VAR came to Palace’s rescue and chalked it off for offside.
The breakthrough finally came in the 63rd minute when March stole past the last defender to skilfully turn in Estupinan’s cross at the far post despite it being at an awkward height.
But Palace levelled when Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez made a mess of a straightforward catch from a set-piece, with the ball bouncing up kindly for Tomkins who headed it into an empty net.
