March 31 2001

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace ended their six match losing streak by beating Crewe Alexandra by one goal to nil this afternoon. Defender DEAN AUSTIN scored the only goal in a match witnessed by 20,872 spectators at Selhurst Park.

The first chance of the game was for Crewe when top scorer Mark Rivers raced clear in the 16th minute, but Palace keeper Alexanders Kolinko came out his goal and stopped the youngsters shot.

Midway through the first half Palace created a number of chances but the Crewe defence stood firm.

DEAN AUSTIN, Dougie Freedman, Simon Rodger and Mikael Forssell all came close before the interval, all their efforts were blocked by the Alex defence.

After the break Tommy Black came on for Freedman and he created a chance after only three minutes on the pitch. Black rounded the Crewe keeper Ademole Bankole, but gave the keeper enough time to get back and make the save.

On 61 minutes Palace got their deserved goal when AUSTIN picked up a lose ball who saw his shot go into the corner of the goal after a deflection.

Forssell then came close to Palace's second, but his effort hit the post.

The Eagles are now 19th in the Nationwide Division One with 40 points from 38 games.

Post-match comments

Goalscorer DEAN AUSTIN said after the game: "Our destiny is in our own hands.

"We will do everything we can. We've just got to keep on attacking. On our day we can beat anyone, but at the end of the day we have got to be confident, and there's no room to get complacent."

Manager Alan Smith refused to talk to the press and AUSTIN said: "Alan Smith feels he doesn't want to get too involved with the press at the moment."

About Riihilahti who made his debut for the Eagles AUSTIN commented: "I thought Aki played very well, and is a good acquisition for the squad.

"The squad is growing stronger all the time and I feel we're going to give someone a good wallop."