Palace 4 - 2 Wolves
Sat Sep 14 2002 - League
Wayne Routledge scored his first ever goal for Palace as the Eagles beat Wolves 4-2 at Selhurst Park.
The wonderkid gave Palace a great start scoring with a right foot piledriver, from a Danny Butterfield cross on the left, which went into the roof of the net in the first minute.
Match Stats
Ground: Selhurst Park (Attendance: 16961)
Palace: Kolinko, Fleming, Powell, Popovic, Granville, Butterfield, Mullins, Thomson, Routledge (Rubins 75), Johnson (Adebola 79), Freedman (Black 86).
Subs not used: Frampton, Cronin.
Goals: Routledge 1, Freedman 36, Freedman 62 (pen), Thomson 72.
Wolves: Oakes, Irwin, Lescott, Butler, Naylor, Rae (Cooper 58), Newton (Proudlock 69), Ingimarsson, Ince, Blake, Sturridge (Miller 58).
Subs not used: Murray, Pollet.
Bookings: Ince, Proudlock.
Goals: Ingimarsson 31, Blake 70.
Referee: L Cable (Woking).
Only a last-ditch tackle stopped him from adding a second goal when he latched on to a through-ball two minutes afterwards.
His pace and trickery caused Wolves problems throughout the game and later involved in a goal later on.
Butterfield missed a glorious chance to make it 2-0 but somehow managed to sky his close range effort over the bar, when it would have been esier to score from Andy Johnson's low cross from the right on seven minutes.
Shortly after, Dougie Freedman was sent through on goal but missed the target - Palace should have been three up.
Then following a Palace corner, Wolves cleared the ball down the other end and got the equaliser on 31.
Dean Sturridge took the ball off Hayden Mullins in midfield and ran down the right. He crossed into the danger area where Ivar Ingimarsson - being tracked back by Steve Thomson - shot and the onrushing Alex Kolinko could only get a slight touch and the ball looped over into the back of the net.
It only took Palace five minutes to regain the lead as Butterfield's left wing cross was headed home by the unmarked Dougie Freedman.
Freedman made it 3-1 from the penalty spot after Oakes had brought down Andy Johnson on the hour mark.
Nine minutes later, Nathan Blake gave the visitors a chance to comeback into the game when he slotted home a Kolinko fumble following Paul Ince's drive.
But Palace made sure of the points when Thomson scored a great volley in the six-yard box from Mullins' floated cross from the right.
It was their first home league win of the season, while Wolves suffered their second succesive defeat.
Man of the Match: Routledge - different class
Chants of the Match: "Have you seen the Premier League?!!", "Incey, Incey, what's the score?!" "Wolves are in the First Division, everybody knows, they won't go up!"
Post match comments:
Trevor Francis said: "I have been satisfied in the way we've been playing but our superiority has not been reflected in our results.
"Although we won convincingly I'm still concerned with the number of chances we missed. But I am not going to dwell on that now because we got a well-deserved victory.
 He is a lad who has natural talent and I have been impressed with him since I arrived. I included him in the first team pre-season matches and I think he benefitted from that.  |
| Trevor Francis on Wayne Routledge |
"One particular miss was by Danny Butterfield when we were one nil up and that would have given us a perfect 2-0 advantage. Thankfully in the end we scored at the right time."
Wayne Routledge had another terrific game, making his full league debut and scored after just 45 seconds with a great finish.
Francis said: "He is a lad who has natural talent and I have been impressed with him since I arrived. I included him in the first team pre-season matches and I think he benefitted from that.
"Wayne is dangerous in possession and can play in various positions, so he gives us plenty of options."
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