April 1 2007

Clinton Morrison

Crystal Palace stumbled to an 8th home defeat as Sheffield Wednesday won 2-1 with all the goals coming in the 2nd half, writes Simon Pophale.

With the season coming to the business end, there is now nothing for either club to play for other than trying to finish as high as possible.

The match had an air of mid-table meaninglessness about it even though today was designated a “Family Day” which swelled the crowd to over 20,000.

However, the majority of the crowd would have been left disappointed as we never managed to put our opponents under pressure in a match which was certainly uneasy on the eye.

The opening 45 minutes offered little in the way of entertainment. Both sides had chances to score, albeit few and far between.

Wednesday’s best chance came after 11 minutes when Steve Maclean forced Gabor Kiraly into a smart block while at the other end our first chance was carved out by Jobi McAnuff whose cross was met by James Scowcroft, with the header going wide.

The game was turning into a midfield battle with Carl Fletcher and Ben Watson trying to orchestrate the game, but often found Wednesday equal to the task.

Clear goal-scoring chances were at a premium and all we had to show for the half was a rising drive from Fletcher which was deflected over the bar and a smart shot by Morrison on 38 minutes that Iain Turner saved on his return to Selhurst after his loan spell with us earlier in the season.

The 2nd half showed why we are stuck in mid-table as Wednesday came at us from the start of the half and although Leon Cort had an effort saved on 50 minutes; it was the visitors who opened the scoring as a Deon Burton header from a cross beat Kiraly on 57 minutes.

We struggled to get back into the match and despite Taylor making a number of substitutions; we were heading for defeat until Paul Ifill was bundled over on the edge of the area. From the resulting free-kick, Mark Kennedy floated the ball over for Clinton Morrison to equalise with 10 minutes left.

We were good for a point, until 5 minutes later a dreadful error by the usually immense Leon Cort cost us the game.

His attempted clearance sliced on the crossbar and with an almost open goal, Marcus Tudgay finished from close range to take all the points back to Yorkshire.

Overall, it was a below par performance but it has been in keeping with our erratic home from this season which has cost us any chance of promotion.

Taylor will now try to arrest the season from petering out into any more of a damp squib. On the evidence of this match, he will have his work cut out.

Palace: Kiraly, Lawrence, Borrowdale, Cort, Hudson, Fletcher, McAnuff (Kuqi 58), Watson (Ifill 51), Soares, Morrison, Scowcroft (Kennedy 70).

Subs not used: Speroni, Butterfield.