September 29 2002

Wayne starred again

Another draw for the Eagles as Gillingham held Palace to a 2-2 at Selhurst Park.

Palace improved dramatically after a poor first half performance where they were booed off at half-time and twice came back to level the scores.

Dougie Freedman forced keeper Vince Bartram - who came on for the injured Jason Brown in the 14th minute - into action into two saves early on.

The Gills then took the lead against the run of play in the 24th minute. Guy Ipoua crossed into the box on the right to Rod Wallace, who took advantage of terrible Palace marking to score after his first effort was saved by on-loan keeper Nik Michopoulos.

In the 35th minute, Danny Butterfield was very unfortunate to see a rasping left-foot drive rattle the crossbar.

Man-of-the match Wayne Routledge had an effort blocked by Gills defender Chris Hope and it rebounded back to the youngster who skied over the bar.

The Eagles came out for the second half with all guns blazing and must have had a Trevor Francis rollicking as it only took two minutes for them to equalise when Danny Granville headed home from close range.

But in the 66th minute, the GIlls went into the lead again. Adrian Pennock's cross was flicked on by Rod Wallace across the face of the goal and Hayden Mullins put the ball past his own keeper after trying to hold off Ipoua.

Three minutes later, Routledge fired home the equaliser from 18 yards with a great effort following a corner.

Tommy Black, who came on at half-time for Julian Gray, should have pulled the ball back for a queue of players waiting in the box, but he selfishly opted to shoot at the near post and the keeper saved.

Tony Popovic had a looping header crash against the crossbar shortly after and Palace had to settle for the point.

Palace: Michopoulos, Butterfield, Granville, Popovic, Mullins, Powell, Gray, Riihilahti, Adebola, Freedman, Routledge

Gillingham: Brown, Ashby, Pennock, Hope, Johnson, Smith, Perpetuini, Ipoua, Shaw, Wallace, Nosworthy

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