Crystal Palace and Brighton & Hove Albion have ended the opening half goalless in the first leg of their Championship playoff semi-final at Selhurst Park.

Both sides started frantically but it was the visitors who nearly took the lead with seven minutes played when Leonardo Ulloa headed wide from Wayne Bridge's cross.

Palace were up the other end soon after as Jonathan Williams saw his low effort fly narrowly past the post.

Brighton continued to enjoy the majority of possession and they carved out a great opening midway through the half when Dean Hammond's close-range header looked to be going in. However, Julian Speroni pulled off a reaction save to keep the scores level.

Hammond was involved again with 32 minutes on the clock as his shot from the edge of the box was sliced wide.

The away side created one final chance in first-half stoppage time, but Ulloa could only smash the ball high and wide from another Bridge cross.