November 22 2008

Sean Scannell

Crystal Palace emerged victorious in a six-goal thriller at Selhurst Park, writes Simon Pophale.

From the first whistle to the last, we outplayed our West Country opponents with some slick passing, inventive play and sheer determination.

Neil Warnock was forced to make changes due to suspensions and injuries, but Nathaniel Clyne shone once again at right back and Julian Speroni was back between the sticks.

For the first 30 minutes, if this had been a boxing match it would be have been stopped. We were all over City like a rash and while we had a goal disallowed on 7 minutes, it only took another 4 before we were ahead.

Sean Scannell chased down a loose pass on the halfway line and while Bristol City had let the ball go out for a throw, Scannell kept the ball in and this set Craig Beattie off on a rampaging 20 yard run, which culminated in an inch perfect pass to John Oster, who drove into the bottom left hand corner past Adriano Basso for the opener.

Scannell, however, was not finished. A mix up at the restart saw the Irish youngster take the ball 35 yards before the ball was ushered out for a throw.

Scannell took it himself, and after neat passes between Nick Carle, Beattie and Paul Ifill, who laid the ball off to Scannell just inside the penalty area, he beat Basso for the 2nd time in 120 seconds with a left foot shot. 2-0 and we were cruising.

We had the lions share of possession and when Bristol City did come forward, through the lively McIndoe, they could not manage a shot on goal that troubled Speroni.

It did take 43 minutes for City to make a telling contribution to the match, following a McIndoe throw, former Palace striker Dele Adebola hooked in an overhead kick past a bemused Speroni and while this did get their tails up, we still led at the break.

If Gary Johnson did perform the hairdryer treatment on his players, it may well have had no effect as almost immediately, we attacked from the kick off and Craig Beattie lobbed narrowly over after being fed by Nick Carle.

Paul Ifill, whose tireless running in the first half, had to go off due to injury on 50 minutes, being replaced by Shefki Kuqi.

The Finn did not take long to get into his stride and it was his pass that set up the third goal on 65 minutes. Picking up the ball midway in the City half, his perfect pass found Beattie and he beat Basso from 12 yards to restore our two goal advantage.

Which became 3 on 72 minutes. An Oster corner, following a blocked Carle effort was headed in by Jose Fonte to give us an unassailable 4-1 lead.

Nicky Maynard, Bristol City's own £2 million signing scored following a defensive lapse and despite Speroni being restricted by a thigh strain; he pulled off an outstanding double save at the end to keep us in the driving seat.

Finally, the performance got the result it deserved and we closed the gap on our opponents to just 2 points.

Palace: Speroni, Clyne, McCarthy, Fonte, Hill, Carle, Watson, Oster (Ertl 81), Ifill (Kuqi 50), Beattie, Scannell (Moses 90).

Not Used: Flahavan, Danns.

Bristol City: Basso, Orr (John 68), Fontaine, McCombe, Brian Wilson, Noble (Maynard 62), Elliott, Williams (Sproule 29), Johnson, McIndoe, Adebola.

Not Used: Weale, Carey.