A third time lucky attempt is expected to try to lure Marco Silva from Watford, the man they hope can rescue them from failures they spent a fortune on avoiding.

If it works chances are they will leave Palace well behind them, simply because Roy Hodgson's basement strugglers just can't afford to keep dropping points like this.

The one they handed Everton yesterday was delivered gift wrapped despite a dream start.

After his England heroics it was written large that Rueben Loftus-Cheek would start this one for Palace. And boy, what a start.

Just one minute on the clock and some might say Michael Keane should have done better to halt the lad's progress. But there's no denying that his first minute shot was too fierce for Jordan Pickford to do anything other with than parry the ball straight into the path of James McArthur.

The Palace midfielder would have been chased out of the ground if he had missed the gaping net he was gifted to shoot into.

Mind you, it's a wonder referee Anthony Taylor wasn't subjected to a chase fate five minutes later when he pointed to the spot after Oumar Niasse went tumbling in the box, supposedly with a little help from Scott Dann.

Help was the disputable word here. TV replays suggested there had been minimal contact and that the Senegalese striker had maybe taken a dive.

There was no doubt about the penalty Leighton Baines converted, though. No doubt either about Palace's second on 35 minutes.

Again, you could argue someone in an Everton shirt should have stopped Joel Ward's cross reaching Wilfried Zaha. They didn't, and the ball was in the back of the net before the hopelessly exposed Pickford had time to mutter "not again!"

But just when you thought Palace had cracked it a kamikaze double act between Julian Speroni and Dann gifted Everton an equaliser on the stroke of half time.

The keeper had all the time in the world to hoof a clearance upfield, but instead delivered a pass that caught his skipper napping sufficiently for Idrissa Gueye to dispossess him and send Niasse clear.

No prizes for guessing what the big fella did with that with the goal at his mercy.

There may have been a mention in despatches, though, if you could explain why Everton left Wayne Rooney on the bench when some of the wide open spaces looked tailor-made for him.

No surprise, however, when Palace pushed on the returning Christian Benteke in search of salvation. No real surprise either that the big Belgian showed his rustiness by missing a goalden chance when Zaha put him through soon  afterwards.

That's what happens when you're bottom of the league.