Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher tore into Crystal Palace defender Joel Ward following a 'huge mistake' in the first half of their Premier League clash with Brighton and Hove Albion on Friday night. 

The lowdown

Palace played out a 1-1 draw with their rivals at the Amex Stadium as a late Joachim Andersen own goal cancelled out Conor Gallagher's opener.

Patrick Vieira gave right-back Ward his sixth start in succession and his 19th of the season on the south coast.

But the Englishman was guilty of an error just 11 minutes into the game, heading the ball straight to Marc Cucurella after a long ball forward from Brighton. Cucurella then set Leandro Trossard through on goal, only for Palace 'keeper Jack Butland to deny him.

The latest

Speaking during Sky Sports' coverage of the game, Carragher said Butland had bailed Ward out.

"Huge sigh of relief from Joel Ward, [who] made an absolute mess of it," Carragher said.

"[He] has his goalkeeper to thank. It's a huge mistake. You're just praying that your goalkeeper can help you."

The verdict

The error rather set the tone for Ward, who had a difficult night against The Seagulls.

In the Crystal Palace starting XI, only Will Hughes (6.1), who gave away a penalty and picked up a yellow card, recorded a lower SofaScore rating than Ward's 6.2.

He was dribbled past twice, winning only one of his three ground duels.

The 32-year-old also finished the game with a passing accuracy of just 59%, having failed to find a team-mate with any of his six long balls. He lost possession 19 times overall.

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