Palace 3 - 1 Wimbledon

Tuesday December 5 2000 - League

The Eagles extended their unbeaten run to seven games with tonight's 3-1 win over Wimbledon.

Palace started well with chances for Hayden Mullins and Clinton Morrison, but they could not find the net.

However, it was Wimbledon's Damien Francis who had the biggest chance, which was denied by Neil Ruddock. But minutes later, it was 1-0 to the visitors when Andy Roberts slotted home a Neal Ardley cross.

Two minutes after the break, Palace levelled the game when Mikael Forssell headed a Tommy Black cross behind Dons' keeper Peter Hawkins.

It was Morrison who gave the home side a deserved lead when he headed home in the 56th minute.

Morrison made it 3-1 for Palace with a low strike from just outside the six-yard box.

Palace have now 23 points in 21 games and climbed to 15th place in the Nationwide Division One with this win.

Post match comments

Palace manager Alan Smith praised his hard-working side after the 3-1 win over Wimbledon.

He said: "Now we are seeing a hard, solid-working team. I think for us to beat Wimbledon 3-1 is really quite flattering."

"Palace have got depth and attitude and a real appetite which I feel comes from having confidence, all credit to them.

"We now realise we have the making of a really good team. It's my 19th week here and I feel now that the team are getting to know me and they are realising that everybody has a job to do. It's big victory for us."

His Wimbledon counterpart Terry Burton commented: "It's an absolutely unbelievable feeling. We dominated the game and we got the goal but younger players tend to make mistakes, so we went from a dominating side in the first half to a poor side in the second half.

"But that's how we have been playing recently and we need to work on a lot of things."

From The Terrace Photos

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