Cardiff dominated their Coca-Cola Championship encounter against Crystal Palace but were unable to make their superiority count against a dogged away side.

Cardiff, having not now won in nine Championship games, had been desperate to get their faltering promotion challenge back on track whereas Palace, in contrast now unbeaten in their last three league matches, have eased some of the pressure on manager Peter Taylor.

After a slow start it was Cardiff who had the first effort on goal after eight minutes, the prolific Michael Chopra firing a 25-yard effort wide of the target.

Cardiff continued to push and had another opportunity seven minutes later but Palace goalkeeper Scott Flinders was equal to Willo Flood's header.

Flinders was back in action just moments later to parry a header from Riccardo Scimeca as Dave Jones' side began to dominate proceedings, although Cardiff then had Kevin McNaughton booked for a challenge on Jobi McAnuff.

Despite plenty of endeavour the visitors were struggling to create anything in front of goal and it was Cardiff who continued to look the more likely to break the deadlock.

Palace's Mark Kennedy did have a 20-yard piledriver blocked by Glenn Loovens just after the half-hour mark but it was one of the few occasions the Londoners threatened in the first half.

Flinders was again in the thick of the action just before the interval when he punched clear from Flood's inswinging corner as Cardiff finished the opening 45 minutes strongly although they had Steve Thompson booked for dissent just before the break.

The home side started the second half strongly with Thompson firing over from 25 yards after 54 minutes and Scimeca then firing wide from distance shortly afterwards.

Cardiff's Kerrea Gilbert was booked for unsporting behaviour just before the hour mark but it was still the home side who looked the more likely to score with Flood sending another chance wide from 12 yards and Joe Ledley also failing to hit the target when well placed.

But it was Palace, who had been under the cosh since the re-start, who missed a glorious chance to snatch the lead after 67 minutes, McAnuff's steering a header over the crossbar from close range.

Just a minute later, though, it was again Cardiff who threatened with Chopra denied by Flinders who did well to save the striker's shot from 18 yards.

The Palace keeper was back in action with 18 minutes to go with another fine stop as he parried Flood's well-struck shot.

But despite creating a wealth of opportunities the home side had to settle for a share of the spoils as their promotion hopes suffered another setback.

Teams:

Cardiff Alexander, Gilbert, McNaughton (Cooper 77), Purse,Loovens, McPhail, Flood (Blake 90), Ledley, Scimeca,Thompson (Campbell 90), Chopra.

Subs Not Used: Johnson, Wright.

Booked: McNaughton, Thompson, Gilbert.

Crystal Palace Flinders, Lawrence, Ward, Hudson, Butterfield,McAnuff, Watson (Reich 75), Kennedy, Fletcher, Scowcroft,Morrison (Kuqi 84).

Subs Not Used: Wilkinson, Freedman, Cort.

Booked: Morrison.

Att: 13,704

Ref: M Jones (Cheshire).