August 21 2004

Mark Hudson

Palace suffered their first home defeat of the Premiership season losing 3-1 to Everton, writes Simon Pophale.

The return of Premiership football to Selhurst Park was well overdue. We had waited 6 years for a game like this, so as the day finally arrived, bouts of optimism could be seen floating around SE25 like party balloons waiting to go off, or so it felt.

Wonderful as it was to see so many supporters pack Selhurst to the rafters. My first realisation that Premiership football had arrived was when I went to buy my match programme……

£4!!! For a programme which, I have to say, does look much better than before. But with the SE25 Magazine (which must be floundering as it is going almost half price!), makes it an expensive start to the day.

Still this is what we have all been working hard and waiting for. The Premiership. For one year at least, games like Everton at home will be commonplace for us. No disrespect to Plymouth, Sunderland, Crewe and the like, this is the big time.

While the players were warming up, it was clear that Dowie was not going to risk Sandor Torghelle as he was not to be seen. New boy Ivan Kaviedes was there however, so maybe we would have another debut to look forward to.

The Visit of Everton also meant a return to Selhurst for Nigel Martyn and Marcus Bent. Here was the hope that they wouldn’t return to haunt us.

For the first 15 minutes, Everton took time to get going but we wasted no time in getting stuck in and with energy all of the park, the Scousers were on the back foot. It also didn’t take long for the first goal to come.

A quick break and interplay between AJ and Wayne resulted in a cross coming over which was gleefully headed home by Mark Hudson. We were a goal up and Selhurst was rocking!!

2 minutes later, it should have been 2-0. AJ sprinted away from the Everton defence and found himself in a one on one with Nigel Martyn. He tried to round the former Palace keeper and a combination of that and Alan Stubbs kept the ball out and Everton in the game.

If we could have kept this up, then this game was won. However inexperience at this level and a costly error brought Everton back into the game. A poor clearance for JULIAN SPERONI found Mark Hudson and under pressure from Marcus Bent, passed back to his keeper. SPERONI attempted to take it away from the goal but lost the ball in his own penalty area to Kevin Campbell and SPERONIs’ resulting challenge saw Campbell go down like a sack of spuds, The referee pointed to the spot and Thomas Gravesen did the rest. 1-1.

For the next few minutes, it was all Everton. Kevin Kilbane and Gravesen were making real nuisances of themselves on the left hand side. Boyce was being given another torrid afternoon but he has adapted well to life in the Premiership. Not expected to start, Butterfields’ injury has put him to the forefront, where he has not disappointed.

Dowie clearly felt that counter attacking football was the way to go and the speed with which we do counter at is going to worry some teams. With more luck and some better finishing, AJ could have had more goals today. Although he was aided and abetted well by Dougie Freedman, making his first Premiership start in our colours, it was clear that a big target man was required. Meanwhile, everything good from Everton was coming through Thomas Gravesen. He sent a free kick just over after 33 minutes and was a constant threat. His class was clear for all to see. This was the gulf between what we were used to and what we are now facing. Despite a lot of good movement and inventiveness from both sides, it ended goalless at half time.

The second half began as the first half ended, Fitz Hall having a long range effort deflected wide. Everton were slowly coming back into the match though, Marcus Bent having a couple of efforts on goal, which SPERONI comfortably dealt with. However on the hour, that man Gravesen conjured up a moment of magic which would have been fit to win any game.

Receiving the ball on the left hand side, he looked up and the next moment the ball was flying past SPERONI into the left hand side of the net. 1-2 and the game was swinging away from us. We were now rallying to stay in the match, but for all the possession and free kicks that we had, there was no end result.

With just 20 minutes left, Dowie brought on Shaun Derry to add some bite to the midfield. Gary Naysmith then promptly upended Freedman with a tackle so late; it could have been last season still. The referee sent Naysmith off for a second bookable. We had a chance again! Surely now, against 10 men, we could grab an equaliser…..

Dowie thought so too, bringing on Ivan Kaviedes for Emerson Boyce and the new boy almost had an immediate impact, threading the ball through to Freedman, who just couldn’t get it under control.

If fate was going to play another hand in our season already, then with 10 minutes to go came the decisive blow. Tony Hibbert, who AJ had given the run around all afternoon, upended our talismanic striker right in front of the Holmesdale. 9,000 pairs of eyes all looked to the referee, who unbelievably waved play on. Everton certainly made the most of the let off as Gravesen fed Marcus Bent and he buried the chance. 1-3 and it was all over.

So what have we learnt from today’s’ game? Well that it is going to be a long season for one thing. I expected that we would be unbeaten after 2 games, with at least 4 points. After seeing us compete and battle for over an hour fairly successfully, this defeat is hard to swallow.

There will be many more games like this to come, starting next Tuesday with Chelsea. Everton made us look ordinary, what will Chelsea do to us?

It seems that we are able to let teams off the hook. We need to develop a ruthless streak in front of goal. AJ had more than one chance today and to be fair, should have been on the score sheet. But it would have only masked what was a good win for the visitors, who bounced back from their opening day mauling by Arsenal. What would they have done if Rooney had been fit?

This was our best chance to get a victory against Everton. Away it will be hard. With or without Rooney. Up front we looked lightweight without Torghelle, although despite only being on the field for about 10 minutes, Ivan Kaviedes has certainly given some food for thought and we will be looking forward to seeing more of him.

But we need to improve and it has to happen very quickly. The Roman Empire rolls into town on Tuesday. It could well be one way traffic.

Crystal Palace: SPERONI 5, Boyce 5, Hudson 6, Popovic 6 , Granville 6, Hall 5, Riihilahti 6, Routledge 7, Freedman 6 , Johnson 6, Kolkka 6.

Subs: Kiraly, Hughes, Borrowdale, Kaviedes, Derry.

Everton: Martyn 6, Hibbert 5, Stubbs 6, Naysmith 4, Carsley 5 , Osman 6, Yobo 6, Gravesen 8, Kilbane 7 , Campbell 7 , Bent 7.

Subs: Wright, Watson, Pistone, Ferguson, McFadden.

Verdict

We have a long way to go. The difference between us today was the Everton took their chances and we did not. SPERONI will have to improve quickly, despite some good saves today. Communication at the back seems to be poor and has cost us now. This was apparent at Norwich but has become an issue today.

Otherwise there are some positives to take from the game. Danny Granville and Tony Popovic showed much improvement from last week, while Routledge and Johnson really did get Everton a torrid time. I am still not impressed with SPERONI and Hall, but with only 2 matches played, it would hard to be too harsh. It was clear that we missed Butterfield, Hughes and Torghelle today.

The difference was Thomas Gravesen. If he leaves Everton, they will be in deep trouble. He virtually won the match on his own. The Dane is showing us, what the benchmark of quality is in this division.

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