Palace 0 - 2 Wolves

Saturday April 28 2001 - League

Crystal Palace lost another three points in their battle against relegation in a game where the crowd showed their anger towards boss Alan Smith.

The Eagles came out with all guns blazing and started brightly as Wolves keeper Michael Oakes was forced to make two saves from Clinton Morrison early on.

However, the travelling support did not have to wait long before Andy Sinton put Wolves in front after 16 minutes, a strike which marked his second goal in only 72 games.

Palace failed to clear from the edge of the box and the ball fell loose to Sinton, whose precise 20-yard lob caught Alex Kolinko off his line and the ball drifted under the bar and into the net.

The game soon became very scrappy and just before the break, Andrews clattered heavily into Andrejs Rubins and the referee immediately gave the Wolves midfielder his marching orders.

Rubins was sadly strechered off and replaced by substitute Julian Grey. The stage was set for Palace to bounce back against a depleted Wolves.

The sending off saw manager Dave Jones replace Georgian international Timuri Ketsbaia, with former Palace player Neil Emblem, much to the disgust of the ex-Newcastle player who threw his shirt at Jones and stormed into the changing rooms.

Palace came out for the second half, not as a side fighting against relagtion but more like a side who had nothing left to play for.

This showed nearly immediately as in the 48th minute, the home defence was caught square and Adam Proudlock latched on to Michael Branch's midfield pass before cleverly slipping the ball past Kolinko for his 11th goal of the season.

Alan Smith's side never really got going, although Wayne Carlisle did hit the side-netting and Hayden Mullins, amongst others, then saw his effort cleared off the line during a last minute goal line scramble.

The last 15 minutes saw Palace fans show their contempt for manager Smith and chairman Simon Jordan by throwing their season ticket books and other objects onto the pitch accompanied by chants of "Stand up if you want Smith out" and "You don't know what you're doing".

Things are not looking good for the Eagle's however with two away trips to Portsmouth and Stockport, the fat lady has not sung yet.

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