Dayton set for first-team role

1:00pm Thursday 24th July 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

James Dayton’s impressive performances in Crystal Palace’s pre-season look to have earnt him a promotion to the first-team squad.

The 19-year-old scored twice in last night’s 4-1 win over Bodmin bringing his pre-season total to four including a strike for the reserves against Dartford last Friday.

Having missed the whole of last season after damaging his cruciate knee ligament in pre-season, Dayton is making up for lost time and manager Neil Warnock admitted he has been impressed by the midfielder.

He said: “James scored two cracking goals, he looked fantastic.

“He has shown he is good enough and he will be in the squad.”

Warnock also praised Welsh left-back Rhoys Wiggins but was unhappy with some of his side’s play in the first half that saw them go in to the break trailing 1-0.

He said: “Wiggins played the best I have seen him too, I was pleased with him.

“But we were disappointing in the first half. I was disappointed with the defenders but I only played McCarthy out of the normal back five.”