Palace branded City cheats for not overruling the ref who failed to spot the ball hit the back of the net and bounce out in the game at the weekend. Palace now insist City should have sportingly gifted Palace a goal for the refereeing error.

Their plea to the Football League for a rematch has also been rejected, although referee Rob Shoebridge has beeen stood down over the incident. City went on to win the game 1-0.

Now Bristol - smarting over being branded cheats - have hit back at Palace and told them to "...get their own house in order".

City chairman Steve Lansdown claims Palace still owe City £250,000 as the final instalment in the £1 million transfer deal for Carle 14 months ago. City claim the payment was due on August 7 but so far they haven't seen a penny.

"(Palace owner) Simon Jordan is accusing us of being cheats, but I suggest he puts his own house in order first," said Lansdown.

"We have to put up with Neil Warnock complaining about a transfer embargo, but that is only in place because they won't pay their bills. They should have paid us £250,000 as part of the Nick Carle deal a week ago.

"But they had no intention of paying us on time and continued to sign new players in the knowledge that the transfer embargo was coming.

"They used the money they owed us to sign Stern John from Southampton. I leave you to decide who the cheats are."

City have now called in lawyers to chase up the cash from Palace.

Lansdown added: "We're stuck with the situation of going through the legal process to recover money from a debtor. Palace have left us no choice but to go through the official channels.

"Given that Palace still owed us money for Carle, you could argue that he shouldn't have been allowed to be named in their squad for Saturday's game."