January 21 2008

Mark Hudson

Crystal Palace made it 15 league games unbeaten with a 2-0 win over 2nd placed Bristol City writes Simon Pophale.

This was, by some distance, our best home performance of the season. Not only was it in front of 19,000, one of our best home attendances of the campaign, but it was against Bristol City, a team who are chasing automatic promotion.

Neil Warnock made suitably no changes to the side which beat Wolves, and from the first whistle, Palace took control.

It took only 5 minutes for us to take the lead. A high ball into the box which Jamie McCombe failed to deal with under pressure from James Scowcroft, ended up with Jamie number 3, McAllisters’ attempted clearance hitting Clinton Morrison and rebounded past Adriano Basso to put us a goal up.

More chances followed this fortuitous break, Ben Watson shooting over after work from Scowcroft and Morrison, while Scowcroft – who looks a player reborn in 2008, had a neat turn and shot after 7 minutes but Basso saved well.

Morrison then crossed and Tom Soares should have made it 2-0 from close range, but ended up putting the ball wide.

Bristol City slowly started to come into the match but despite a large amount of possession, could not convert this into chances. Julian Speroni had little more than routine saves to make, except once on 43 minutes, after he parried an effort from new signing Nick Carle and Clint Hill put the ball out for a corner under pressure from Enoch Showunmi.

Gary Johnson sent his side out well ahead of the start of the second half, but it was the live-wire James Scowcroft that could have put us two ahead after bursting through from the halfway line, but his final touch saw Basso able to scoop the ball at the strikers feet.

Bristol City tried to force their way back into the match and for the first 15 minutes, saw a few tasty but fair challenges but despite having numerous set pieces, could not break into the game.

One goal was never going to be enough and after Speroni pulled off a tremendous one-handed save from a Nick Carle header, the warning signs were always there.

Morrison shot into the side netting on the hour, after great work from Watson and again forced Basso into a save after a clever turn and shot on 73 minutes.

City became frustrated and after another typical full-on Shaun Derry challenge, Michael McIndoe reacted and surprisingly, saw no card. The referee allowed too many challenges to go unpunished, which left both managers incensed on the touchline.

We made the game safe with 5 minutes left, when Mark Hudson rose salmon-like to head home a Ben Watson free kick to make the game safe.

At the final whistle, the vociferous Bristolians trudged back to their coaches, while we were left to celebrate moving into 5th place in the table, only 4 points behind 2nd place.

The Warnock miracle continues and he hasn’t spent a penny. What price automatic promotion now?

Palace: Speroni, Halls, Lawrence, Hudson, Hill, Scannell (Grabban 89), Derry, Watson, Soares, Scowcroft, Morrison (Hills 83).

Not Used: Fletcher, Freedman, Moses.