Spurs' official website said that the Chinese striker completed a hat-trick of assists in just six minutes on his Spurs debut after entering the arena on the hour.

With Anthony Gardner back in action after a pre-season niggle, Steve Carr looking sharp again and completing the full 90 minutes and Steffen Iversen taking his goals in style, it should have been all about positives at Palace but there were concerns as well as both Dean Richards and Milenko Acimovic departed early.

The second half's excitement was a contrast to a more dour opening 45 minutes.

It was all Spurs for the first half although it was a frustrating case of almost, but not quite as a number of promising moves fell down around the 18-meter line.

The Spurs took the lead after 10 minutes with a slick, one-touch passing move on the break. Simon Davies and Darren Anderton exchanged passes, Milenko Acimovic was also involved and the Slovenian provided the key pass to release Iversen who made no mistake from 10 meters.

Dean Richards appeared to still be suffering the effects of an early clash of heads and was replaced after 20 minutes by Anthony Gardner, his first pre-season action.

The second half exploded into life with three goals in six minutes following Qu Bo's arrival on the hour.

The Chinese star who only arrived at the club on Monday won a penalty after 65 minutes when Danny Butterfield handled his attempted cross, and Qu's another cross was superbly for Simon Davies to head home two minutes later, and after 71 minutes the Chinese cushioned a ball into the path of Steffen Iversen, who curled home from 20 meters.

Starting line-ups:

Palace: Clarke, Fleming, Granville, Austin, Popovic, Butterfield, Mullins, Rodger (Routledge, 30), Freedman, Adebola, Thomson.

Spurs: Hirschfeld, Carr, Taricco, Bunjevcevic, Doherty (Perry, 45), Richards (Gardner, 21), Anderton, Davies, Acimovic (Redknapp,44), Rebrov (Qu Bo, 60), Iversen.

(eastday.com August 1, 2002)