January 25 2009

Paul Ifill

Crystal Palace crashed out of the FA Cup for the second successive season to Watford at Vicarage Road by 4 goals to 3.

While the scoreline might look like this was a 7 goal thriller, the harsh fact of this was that with 80 minutes gone, we were 4-1 down for the second successive match as Watford forgot about their Championship plight to advance to the last 16.

Watford owe thier victory to Jobi McAnuff, who metaphorically stuck 2 fingers up at us as he had a hand in anything good that came from the home side.

He set up the first goal, which came on 16 minutes as it was his in swinging corner that was cleared by Jose Fonte only to the edge of the area where Jay DeMerit crashed the ball into the top corner from 15 yards.

10 minutes later McAnuff was at it again, this time providing a long inswinging cross from the right which found Jack Cork in the box and his header across Speroni made it 2-0.

With 30 minutes gone it could have been 3, as McAnuff found Jon Harley totally unmarked 20 yards out but the former Chelsea defender shot wide.

Despite having a fair amount of possession, we could not convert any of it into a reasonable chance and Alan Lee came closest with a header.

Neil Warnock must have kicked the cat at half time as we came out in the 2nd half in a much more positive way and reduced the arrears in only 3 minutes.

A John Oster corner was flicked on by Alan Lee and Clint Hill headed home from close range to reduce the arrears.

Oster, who was our best player on the pitch, constantly threatened Watford with mazy runs, pinpoint passing and with dangerous set pieces.

On the hour, an Oster cross was cleared by a last ditch Adrian Mariappa header almost under his own bar and from the resulting corner, Alan Lee downward header was deflected inches over by Jose Fonte.

One minute later, following a foul on Lee, Oster hit the bar with a 20 yard free kick. At 2-2, the whole complexion of the game would have changed.

However, just like against Ipswich, we got caught out and McAnuff sent over another corner which was not cleared and Will Hoskins lashed the ball in to make it 3-1.

Worse was to follow as McAnuff rounded off his afternoons work on 71 minutes, running a full 45 yards from inside his own half to square the ball to Gregorsz Rasiak who made it 4-1 and game over.

Despite a late rally in the last 10 minutes which saw us have a goal ruled out for some infringement which remains a mystery, Neil Danns netting his first for us on 83 with a close range header and Paul Ifill finishing from close range deep into injury time, it was a case of too little, too late.

The referee and linesman (especially the one who was on the touchline closest to the ramshackle stand that graced Division 4) had a shocker and despite missing a blatant handball and giving decisions the wrong way, it seemed every single push, however innocuous went their way, but not ours.

That does not disguise our defensive frailties which is something Warnock will have to work on, especially with the Charlton match on the horizon.

Palace: Speroni, Clyne (Butterfield 76), Lawrence, Fonte, Hill, Derry (FLETCHER 75), Danns, Ifill, Oster, Lee (Kuqi 78), Moses.

Not Used: CARLe, Flahavan, Scannell, Hills.