But six minutes from the end Doncaster's substitute Quinton Fortune – once a Manchester United colleague of Keane – curled a delightful 25-yard shot over the head of the Ipswich goalkeeper, Richard Wright, to bring the visitors the dubious distinction of having equalled their record for their worst start to a season in 45 years.
He was dropped from the side against Halifax Town in favour of loanee Leo Fortune-West, and even though manager Walker assured Brodie that he was in the club's long-term plans, Brodie reacted angrily to being substituted for Fortune-West andinst evenfleethoughed in manager
Central defender Barnett poked in past Steele from close-range to put the contest beyond doubt 11 minutes from time before Maloney completed the rout with a simple tap-in in the 88th minute following a pull-back from substitute Marc-Antoine Fortune.
Heaton kept Cardiff in the game with another fine save from substitute Marc-Antoine Fortune before James Morrison missed an open goal for the Baggies.
In injury-time, Maynard was denied a hat-trick by former Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland but substitute Marc-Antoine Fortune turned in the rebound.
West Brom looked the more likely to score, though, and went close when Jerome Thomas, on as a first-half substitute for Marc-Antoine Fortune, who himself had earlier come on for Zoltan Gera, beat three defenders before his left-foot shot was saved by Cesar.
Ibrahimovic came close with a stinging drive from the edge of the box, which Andriy Pyatov did well to save, admittedly with a touch of fortune, and substitute Johan Elmander spurned a glorious opportunity by blazing wide from a superb position in the box.
While Palace's fans implored "we only need one goal", the substitute then spun a cross which Fortune palmed away to earn Palace's 13th penalty of the season.
culture he came of age in by leaning on his charismatic image as a substitute for substance, by offering up fortune-cookie phrases instead of hard truths about the future.
(For "nailed" I'd substitute "wallowed in," but why quibble?) Dispensing fortune-cookie bromides ("There's no arguing with joy") and cutesy one-liners (on rockabilly: "the Fonzie of rock genres"), Almond positions himself as an accidental critic.
