Palace 0 - 0 Leicester City
Tue Aug 27 2002 - League
Crystal Palace were unable to gain their first home win of the season against Division One new boys Leicester in a 0-0 draw.
The visitors were down to ten men in the last five minutes of the game after Gerry Taggart got sent off for elbowing.
Match Stats
Ground: Selhurst Park (Attendance: 15440)
Palace: Clarke, Fleming, Mullins, Popovic, Granville, Butterfield (Adebola 62), Derry (Riihilahti 89), Thomson (Routledge 86), Powell, Johnson, Freedman.
Subs not used: Kolinko, Austin.
Booking: Powell.
Leicester City: Walker, Impey, Taggart, Elliott, Rogers, Stewart (Oakes 76), Lewis, McKinlay, Scowcroft, Benjamin, Dickov (Heath 86)
Subs not used: Price, Stevenson, Williamson.
Booking: Taggart. Sent off: Taggart 85.
Referee: Phil Joslin (Newark).
A few minutes previously, he was booked for a two-footed lunge on Dougie Freedman.
In an open first half, Andrew Johnson went close with a header in the 16th minute from Danny Granville's cross.
Dougie Freedman, who had a quiet game, somehow put a free header wide when he had all the time in the world to place it into the net.
Shortly after, Johnson had a shot narrowly wide of Ian Walker's post. Inbetween his efforts, Paul Dickov forced Matt Clarke into a decent save.
Palace looked dangerous from corners as Tony Popovic had two or three headers narrowly wide of the post.
In the second half, Dickov and Alan Rogers went close and down the other end Hayden Mullins had a close-range effort cleare away, while sub Dele Adebola headed straight to Walker.
Dickov had a spectacular overhead kick go inches over the bar and Mullins saw a weak shot go straight to Walker.
Palace piled on the pressure for a goal to break the deadlock and against 10 men - the third time this season - couldn't get that elusive winning goal.
Post match comments:
Trevor Francis said: "The players tried hard, but we just couldn't find the net.
"We played too many high balls to Andy Johnson and Dougie Freedman, and it was obvious they were not going to win that many in the air.
 We played too many high balls to Andy Johnson and Dougie Freedman, and it was obvious they were not going to win that many in the air.  |
| Trevor Francis |
"Dele Adebola came on, he gave us a presence up front."
"Our passing was poor and it's a long way from what you would see in the Premiership.
"But we had to defend from set pieces as they were a huge side and I was disappointed that we conceded too many free-kicks in dangerous positions.
"When you don't score a sense of frustration shows, but it's important not to concede at the other end."
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