A much-changed Huddersfield Town side were dumped out of the Carabao Cup with a lacklustre performance against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

Just over a month ago head coach David Wagner saw his young charges batter, bewitch and bewilder the Eagles on the opening day of the Premier League season.

But there was to be no repeat as a 13th minute strike from Bakary Sako was enough to send Roy Hodgson's side through to the Fourth Round of what is in essence a much-derided competition.

With Premier League football the ultimate priority, Wagner unsurprisingly made nine changes to the side which performed so admirably against Leicester City on Saturday.

The most noticeable changes were the return of Martin Cranie and Jonathan Hogg for their first starts of the season as well as a debut for right-back Florent Hadergjonaj after joining from FC Ingolstadt 04 last month.

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The only two players who kept their place from the weekend draw was Tom Ince and Elias Kachunga – the latter starting upfront with Laurent Depoitre rested after his exploits against the Foxes.

Other notable absentees were Collin Quaner (calf), Steve Mounié (heel), Jon Gorenc Stanković (knee) and Kasey Palmer (hamstring) while Robert Green was cup tied.

Buoyed by the opening day 3-0 on the same ground last month, Town started with an air of authority and confidence, stroking the ball around and dictating play.

But their approach was perhaps a bit too nonchalant and the third minute chance for Andros Townsend after poor play from Philip Billing should have set alarm bells ringing.

Yet it didn't and when Joe Lolley was guilty of a similar charge he had Cranie to thank for clearing the ball out for a corner.

Unfortunately Andros Townsend's delivery into the box was headed into the net by Bakary Sako for the Eagles to take the lead.

The goal appeared to deflate Town and for the next 20 minutes they appeared static and lacking the usual intensity so synonymous with a David Wagner side.

Other than a Kachunga effort which was flicked over the bar and the incessant positivity of Rajiv van La Parra the visitors offered very little as the first-half drew to a close while Palace looked more than capable of adding to their advantage.

The second-half opened with Abdelhamid Sabiri replacing Lolley but the biggest cheer of the night was for the introduction of Palace's Pape Soure, returning to action for the first time since a serious car crash over a year ago.

But it was Sabiri who was soon in the thick of the action, wriggling into the box before drawing a great save out of Julian Speroni in the Palace goal.

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With the game continuing to get away from them, Wagner rolled the dice for the final time and introduced Aaron Mooy and Dean Whitehead for the final twenty minutes of the game.

The Australian replaced Ince and immediately moved into the 'Number 10' role, Kachunga going out wide and Sabiri upfront.

The sheer presence of Mooy was enough to see the visitors push forward looking for an elusive equaliser with Michael Hefele and even keeper Joel Coleman piling forward in the final stages.

But it was too little to late and as the final whistle blew it was a disappointingly lacklustre display from David Wagner's men.

Yet bigger and more important encounters await – starting with Burnley at Turf Moor at the weekend.