Sheffield United 2 - 1 Palace
Sat Nov 30 2002 - League
Crystal Palace suffered their second defeat on the trot losing to a late goal in a 2-1 defeat away to Sheffield United.
Sheffield United keeper Paddy Kenny had to be alert as early as the second minute when he turned away Johnson's header from Shaun Derry's cross.
Match Stats
Ground: Bramall Lane (Attendance: 16686)
Sheffield United: Kenny, Jagielka, Page, Murphy, Harley, Brown, Tonge, Ndlovu (Asaba, 83), McCall, Windass (Allison, 78), Kabba (Peschisolido, 78)
Subs not used: Kozluk, Montgomery
Goals: Windass 45, Allison 89
Palace: Kolinko, Powell, Symons, Popovic, Granville, Butterfield, Derry (Black, 63), Mullins, Routledge (Riihilahti, 62), Johnson, Adebola
Subs not used: Michopoulos, Williams, Borrowdale
Bookings: Derry, Granville, Mullins
Goal: Riihilahti 69
Referee: G Laws (Whitley Bay)
Kenny saved Johnson's header from the resulting corner. Peter Ndlovu then had a 25-yard shot wide before having another strike from similar range saved by Alex Kolinko.
Shaun Murphy, who was on-loan at Palace last season, then had mis-hit a short-range shot wide of the goal.
But deep into first half stoppage time, Dean Windass, on loan from Middlesbrough, put the Blades into the lead.
Steve Kabba, who only recently moved to Sheffield United in a £250,000 move from Palace, crossed for Windass to score from close range.
Substitute Aki Riihilahti got the equaliser on 69 from Johnson's cross for his first goal of the season.
Dele Adebola was unlucky not to score when his shot from a few yards came off the underside of the crossbar and forced Kenny into a save from 20 yards.
But substitute Wayne Allison got the winner for United with a minute to go, clipping the ball over Kolinko from Carl Asaba's cross.
Post match comments:
Trevor Francis said: "I was very disappointed with the result but pleased with the way we performed, we were the better side.
 I was very disappointed with the result but pleased with the way we performed, we were the better side  |
| Trevor Francis |
"We really showed our determination and when we got back at 1-1 we were the likely winners. The difference between a win and failure can be so narrow as was shown today.
"We passed the ball a lot better after the break and created chances, but we weren't able to take them.
"Both Andy and Dele had chances which could have been taken but it was not to be. The fact that Dele's effort went away from goal after hitting the bar rather than going in shows that dividing line of fortune that today was against us."
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