December 10 2005

Andy Johnson

Another home game, another home draw. It should not have been much of a surprise as Wolves had drawn the previous three and we managed to scrape a point against Millwall, writes Simon Pophale.

While this might have been a better performance, it was still not good enough to take all three points.

Dowie made some changes from the previous week, bringing in Clinton Morrison, Darren Ward, Micheal Hughes and Tom Soares, who all missed the match against Millwall, while Emmerson Boyce switched to left back and Mikele Leigertwood to right back. It was an attack minded team and from the kick off, it was Palace who started the stronger.

Micheal Hughes was fouled by Tom Huddlestone on 8 minutes and from the resultant free kick, Hughes hit a 20 yard shot which deflected off the wall and Stefan Postma had to tip the ball over. We continued to have possession and Soares had a chance but shot weakly at Postma from close range. Wolves had not managed a shot on target, when we got caught on the break and they took the lead.

Huddlestone broke away from a Palace corner and found Seol Ki-Hyeon on the right, who cut in and sent a shot which went right across the area and into the bottom left corner of the net. Speroni had no chance as he was totally unsighted. Once again at home, we were a goal behind.

We battled on, trying to get on level terms and while the half was devoid of much more goalmouth activity. Wolves forced a couple of corners, one of which came after Speroni brilliantly tipped over a 15 yard effort from Kenny Miller.

Moments later, and we were nearly the ochestrators of our own downfall as Emmerson Boyce on the edge of the penalty area, made a simple pass which Darren Ward miscontrolled and let in Darren Anderton, but he fired wide into the side netting.

As goal was a distant hope but with just 2 minutes before half time, we got on level terms as Tom Soares played short pass to AJ, whose finish in the box was clinical as he despatched the ball through the legs of a defender and into the right hand corner of Postma’s goal.

1-1 and with the whistle blowing shortly after, there was the hope that the 2nd half would continue in the same vein.

Sadly for us, it didn’t and if anyone looked like they were going to take the lead, it was Wolves and on the hour, they should have done. Darren Anderton attempted to chip the ball over Speroni from 20 yards but the bar came back off the bar and straight to the feet of Kenny Miller, who somehow managed to fire wide from 5 yards out.

It was a major let-off. As for clear chances on our side, Ben Watson had an effort on 71 minutes was deflected inches over the bar by Mark Kennedy and AJ tangled with Gabor Gyepes in the box, but no penalty was forthcoming. It had been that kind of a day, however in the context of the promotion race, neither club did themselves any favours.

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