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April 20 2024 5.54am

Palace 0 - 0 Sheffield Wednesday

Sat Feb 22 2003 - League

A woeful Palace failed to break down struggling Sheffield Wednesday, missing out on a good chance to catch up with the play-off pack.

Wednesday had the worst away record in the division and Palace only looked like winning it in the last five minues.

Match Stats

Ground: Selhurst Park (Attendance: 16707)

Palace: Berthelin, Granville, Powell, Mullins, Butterfield, Thomson (Routledge, 33 (Adebola, 68)), Riihilahti, Gray (Borrowdale, 88), Johnson, Akinbiyi, Black

Subs not used: Kolinko, Antwi

Sheffield Wednesday: Evans, Smith, Maddix, Monk, Westwood, McLaren, Quinn, Johnston, Barry-Murphy, Reddy (Crane, 89), Owusu (Kuqi, 81)

Subs not used: Haslam, Stringer, Green

Bookings: McLaren, Quinn

Referee: G Cain (Bootle)

They has series of successive corners and Tommy Black hit the crossbar after a good run into the box from the right.

The visitors attacked Palace from the kick-off but Palace responded with an Andrew Johnson volley which went into row Z and a Darren Powell header over the bar from Black's corner.

Wednesday were more dominant in midfield and Trevor Francis made a good move by taking off the recalled Steve Thomson, who was ineffective, and brought on wonderkid Wayne Routledge in the first half.

Ever-present Danny Butterfield moved into the centre with Routledge going in as right-wingback and improved things immediately by running at defenders.

The match continued to be a dour affair, just like last season's, with few chances created by either side.

Dele Adebola came on for Routledge towards the second half and played better than Ade Akinbiyi who made his first start of the season.

In the closing stages Palace should have won the game with Black's shot which crashed off the woodwork and they badly need a clinical finisher if they are to get into the play-offs.

Post match comments:

Trevor Francis said: "I've been proud of some of my players' performances recently but this time we let ourselves down. Too many players did not show enough urgency and we need to improve.

"In the first half, I thought one or two of our players were still feeling sorry for themselves after our FA Cup defeat.


When I saw their line-up it was clear what their game plan was and it was up to us to break them down, but we didn't
Trevor Francis

"We were ineffective in terms of our attacking play and Wednesday grew in confidence from that."

Wednesday came to Selhurst Park with a very defensive formation and made it difficult for Palace to break down.

"When I saw their line-up it was clear what their game plan was and it was up to us to break them down, but we didn't.

"Their five centre-halves rarely left their zones so it was up us to make them come out but we were ineffective in the first half and Wednesday improved as a result.

"We've got to have more urgency about us. The introduction of Dele Adebola in the second half had a good affect but our attacking play just wasn't good enough."

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