Palace share the spoils with Burnley

January 18 2003

Tony Popovic

Despite dominating long periods of the game, Palace had to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw with Burnley.

Palace started brightly, having a number of notible chances in the first half.

In the eighth minute Julian Gray scampered down the left wing before crossing a dangerous ball into the box. Tony Grant was first to the ball for Burnley though, and managed to get it clear.

After 24 minutes on form Tommy Black, who before today had scored 9 goals in 9 games, had a great shot saved by Burnley's first choice keeper Marlon Beresford.

Gray had another two chances which were brilliantly saved by Beresford - one of them rebounded to Aki Riihilahti but he stretched and missed from only 6 yards out.

Despite all of Palace's chances, it was Burnley who took the lead only 2 minutes before halftime. A free kick from Robbie Blake on the left was nodded home by ex-Eagle Gareth Taylor.

In the second half, Blake almost squeezed in a shot which would have doubled Burnley's lead. His shot hit the lefthand post of the Palace goal, and fell into the arms of CEDRIC BERTHELIN, who was playing in only his second game for Palace.

On 60 minutes Dele Adebola ran on to a through ball, and was brought down by Beresford just inside the 18 yard box. Referee M Cooper awarded Palace a penalty which Tony Popovic cooly slotted home.

Trevor Francis brought on Danny Granville, Wayne Routledge and Ade Akinbiyi in the second half, which provided Palace with even more chances to win the game.

Routledge wide on the right crossed a glorious ball into the 6 yard area, only for Akinbiyi to miss with a header on the far post.

Soon after Tommy Black could have scored with a 25-yard screamer, but his shot came back off the frame of the goal.

Palace piled on the pressure late on in the game, but in the end had to settle for the draw.

Francis said after the match: "It was pleasing to see us come from behind. Overall I’m very pleased with the way we played today but we should have taken all three points."

Francis went on to explain why Andy Johnson did not take Palace's second half equalising penalty. He said: "Dougie Freedman is our number one penalty taker and Andy is second.

"However, I decided that for today I didn’t want Andy to take a penalty if we got one because Burnley’s reserve keeper, Nik Michopoulos, was on loan here for three months.

"Andy has practiced a lot of penalties against him so he knows exactly where Andy likes to put it.

"I didn’t want to risk the possibility that Nik might have passed that information on to Marlon Beresford", he added.

Speaking of Andy Johnson's return to the side Francis continued: "He did very well, he made some excellent runs and delivered some superb crosses."

Crystal Palace: BERTHELIN, Butterfield, Symons, Popovic, Mullins, Johnson, Derry, Gray, Riihilahti, Black, Adebola.

Subs: Granville, Routledge, Cronin, Borrowdale, Akinbiyi.

Burnley: Beresford, West, Gnohere, Grant, Cook, Briscoe, Branch, Taylor, Moore I, Blake, Diallo.

Subs: Michopoulos, McGregor, Moore A, Papadopoulos, Payton.

Referee: M. Cooper.

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