Jamie McCombe struck deep into injury-time as Bristol City claimed a last-gasp 1-1 draw to deny Crystal Palace their first win in five games.

City - who would have gone top of the Coca-Cola Championship with a win - looked to have missed their chance when Julian Speroni saved Bradley Orr's penalty and follow-up, but McCombe netted in the fifth minute of stoppage time to earn the Robins a point.

The Eagles had led through Lee Hills' controversial strike and looked to have held on for the win until McCombe climbed highest to meet Lee Johnson's corner with a thumping header.

A tight first-half saw clear cut chances few and far between with Palace happy to contain the Robins' most potent threats while attacking sporadically on the break themselves.

Nick Carle, who was frustrated throughout the game by the close attentions of Carl Fletcher, forced Julian Speroni into the first save of the night after just six minutes when his low poked effort needed turning round the post.

Dele Adebola and Clint Hill then exchanged headed chances at either end before the major talking point of the half occured just before the half hour mark.

As Adebola chased a long ball over the top of the Palace defence Matt Lawrence appeared to prevent the striker from getting past him by elbowing him in the face. He escaped with just a yellow card, but it could have been worse as the challenge was far from subtle.

Bradley Orr, and Carle then sent speculative efforts whistling past Speroni's goal before the break but Palace held on and the sides went in level at half-time.

The second period saw Neil Warnock's side pose much more of an attacking threat and Adriano Bassu was forced to react well to a low drive from Shefki Kuqi inside the first three minutes.

Mark Hudson then saw his header cleared off the line by Jamie McAllister from the resulting corner as Bristol City struggled to deal with the Eagles' aerial threats.

After Kuqi then dragged another effort disappointing wide when presented with time and space in the box, Lee Hills gave the visitors the lead on 61 minutes.

Ben Watson appeared to handle in the build up, but once the ball reached the young full-back he made no mistake in dispatching a controlled volley across Bassu and into the far corner to notch his first senior goal for the club.

Once ahead, Palace then retreated back into their shell and were fortunate to see Ivan Sproule and Michael McIndoe efforts flash wide of their goal when presented with good opportunities.

With just four minutes remaining it appeared that Palace would be made to pay for their lack of endeavour when Bristol City were awarded a dubious penalty.

Darren Byfield caused panic in the box and as the ball ricocheted up and struck Danny Butterfield referee Richard Beeby then pointed to the spot.

Orr's penalty was then saved by Speroni, who reacted brilliantly to spring to his left to keep out a second effort after the rebound fell back to the feet of the Robins' player.

Then with the four minutes of allotted stoppage time up Jamie McCombe rescued a point for the hosts when he met a late corner to power an unstoppable header past a stranded Speroni.

Gary Johnson will be delighted with the way his side continued right to the wire, while Neil Warnock is likely to be far from impressed at the amount of added time allowed by Beeby.

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