Crystal Palace ensured Birmingham and Sunderland will play in the Barclays Premiership next season with victory over Derby, who must settle for a place in the play-offs.

The Rams needed to win to retain a realistic chance of winning automatic promotion from the Coca-Cola Championship, but goals from Republic of Ireland internationals Clinton Morrison - a former Birmingham player - and Mark Kennedy ended their quest to finish in the top two.

Palace had nothing but pride for which to play, but they deserved their win against a Derby side who looked tired and ragged.

This was arguably Derby's most important game of the season, so the lack of urgency they showed in the opening half-hour was baffling.

In the fifth minute, Morrison had missed a good chance to give Palace the lead, guiding the ball wide of the right post after Dean Leacock's misjudgement of a header had left the Eagles forward clean through.

Derby were failing to show the form which had brought them 12 away wins in the league this season, and there was little surprise when Palace took the lead in the 29th minute.

Carl Fletcher's low shot from 30 yards fell perfectly for Morrison inside the penalty area, allowing the Irishman to beat Lee Camp - deputising for the suspended Stephen Bywater and playing his first game for Derby since last August - from 12 yards.

Morrison almost made it 2-0 four minutes later with a powerful volley from a difficult angle which flew narrowly wide of Camp's right post.

Ten minutes before the interval, Derby came close to equalising, top scorer Steve Howard heading Darren Currie's left-wing corner just over the crossbar.

Billy Davies' side were finally beginning to discover their rhythm, and captain Matt Oakley should have done better than shoot straight at Julian Speroni in the 38th minute after David Jones had picked out his team-mate's run from midfield.

The visitors lost young forward Giles Barnes to an apparent knee injury, which forced him to return to the dressing room on crutches in the 79th minute, just after the break, and it seemed to weaken them as Palace created several chances.

Both Jobi McAnuff and Clinton Morrison went close twice before Kennedy made the game safe for Peter Taylor's team in the 67th minute.

With the Derby defence nowhere, Kennedy collected a pass from Gary Borrowdale on the left flank before moving into the penalty area and beating Camp at his near post with a fierce left-footed drive from 10 yards.

Teams:

Crystal Palace (1) 2 Derby (0) 0

Crystal Palace Speroni, Lawrence, Hudson, Cort, Borrowdale,McAnuff, Watson, Fletcher, Kennedy, Morrison (Ifill 77),Kuqi (Scowcroft 74).

Subs Not Used: Kiraly, Freedman, Butterfield.

Goals: Morrison 29, Kennedy 67.

Derby Camp, Edworthy (Mears 46), Leacock, Nyatanga, McEveley,Teale, Jones, Oakley, Barnes (Lupoli 51), Currie (Fagan 65),Howard.

Subs Not Used: Grant, Pearson.

Booked: Howard.

Att: 19,545

Ref: T Bates (Staffordshire).