October 14 2003

Danny Butterfield

A 1-1 draw against Derby County was all Palace could muster as they finished yet another match with ten men.

Darren Powell was shown the red card by referee Armstrong in the final minute.

Just before the half-time break it was Danny Butterfield who opened the scoring from a cross by Michael Hughes.

But unfortunately for the Eagles, Derby equalised 17 minutes before the full-time whistle through Luciano Zavagno.

Once again it was the usual story. Palace had most of the possession in the

first 45 minutes and created chances which they failed to put away.

They should have been at least two up by half-time, then a fluke goal, from what

was clearly intended as a cross wouldn't have mattered. They didn't put Derby

under the same kind of pressure in the second half but still created

chances and should have put at least one away.

Palace need to strengthen up

the defence. There's no suitable replacement for Popovic and now we are

going to loose Powell as well for at least a game. The problem with the

Palace squad is that there's no strength in depth and when key players are

injured or off form we fall apart.

We need to sign a player who can control

the game from midfield and a striker who can bring the ball down first time

and shoot.

Without these improvements I predict more of the same over the

next few games when realistically we should have expected to get 12 points

from 12 out of the last 2 games and the next two, all at home.

Crystal Palace: Berthelin, Fleming, Symons, Powell, Butterfield, Derry, Hughes, Black, Shipperley, Freedman, Routledge.

Subs: Watson, Riihilahti, Borrowdale, Williams, Cronin.

Derby County: Oakes, Jackson, Johnson, Mills, Zavagno, Valakari, Taylor, Huddlestone, Candido Costa, Holmes, Morris.

Subs: Elliott, Grant, Bolder, Boertien, Tudgay.

Division One table

Palace 2003/4 team stats

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