Crystal Palace - 2 (Morrison 10. 58.)
Huddersield Town - 2 (Dyson 33. Stewart 39 pen.)

The final home game of the season arrived, and much as Palace's season is always different, this time we started with a protest by the supporters. Some 2000+ of them marched up Holmesdale Road and presented a 5000 signature petition to Mark Goldberg, urging him to relinquish control of the Club.

Unless someone else is prepared to buy him out, always assuming that he would be prepared to sell (presumably at a very significant loss?), the only other way that he may relinquish the Chairmanship would be if he just decided to walk away. If he was to do that, then the Club would inevitably fold very soon after.

I sincerely hope that the action taken by the supporters does not lead to that scenario!

The release of thousands of black balloons when the players came on to the field, to mark the sacking of 46 members of the backroom staff was perfectly acceptable, and given the assurance that the players were forewarned that this action was not a reflection on their performance, Palace will have made their mark on the end of yet another year.

As to whether it will have had any affect on the running of the Club is somewhat doubtful, as it is now the Administrators that are running the Club, and they are never known for their compassion. How else are they going to manage to get the Club back on an even keel? Hopefully the main impact it may have had would be on any potential backer for the future, at least they could rest assured that Palace have a dedicated supporter base.

As usual, despite the off field turmoil, the youngsters on the pitch acquitted themselves admirably. The listed team took on even more of a youth flavour with seven recent junior players included either in the side or on the bench. The game was not very old when Wayne Carlisle sent in a perfect cross which Clinton Morrison met with a well directed header that flew over the top of Nico Vaesen and settled sweetly into the back of the net. Less than 10 minutes gone, and we were on our way. Very little action took place for the next 20 minutes, but at the 33 minute mark a simple nod down by Wayne Allison found John Dyson in good position only 10 yards out, and he was easily able to place the ball past Kevin Miller to bring the scores level. Worse was to follow for the Eagles when, only six minutes later, Marcus Stewart was adjudged to have been brought down by Miller. Despite protests that Kevin had not even touched him, the referee pointed to the spot, and Stewart picked himself up and duly took the penalty to put the visitors ahead.

The half-time break came without further incident, and Steve Coppell must once again have had the job of picking his charges up, and setting them for an extra effort for the second period of play. Whatever he said obviously worked, and the second half was almost exclusively the Crystal Palace show. It was certainly a display that will give the supporters good heart for the next season to come.

It took 13 minutes of the second half for Palace to make their assertiveness pay dividends. A corner, taken by Carlisle was headed onto the post by Dean Austin, but the rebound found Morrison once again in position to make the score 2-2, and everything was there to play for. Attacking play from the home side was now the order of the day. Fan Zhiyi was pulled down in the area, and though both managers, and home and visiting supporters believed the penalty was about to be awarded the referee waved play on! Two weeks in a row the dice have not fallen our way. Four chances for Palace to take the lead came and went, the chances being shared between Andrew Martin (2), Fan and Austin.

As the game petered out Huddersfield nearly managed to steal all the points with their only real chance of the half, Allison being unable to convert a somewhat simple tap in when the opportunity presented itself.

Next week's match against Queens Park Rangers will be very difficult, as QPR will be playing for their First Division existence. Anything less than 3 points could prove disastrous for them - one can be sure they will be well fired up for the game.

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Andrew Frampton, Wayne Carlisle (Richard Harris 75), Dean Austin, David Woozley, Sagi Burton, Craig Foster (James Hibburt 72), Fan Zhiyi, Leon McKenzie (Andrew Martin 23), Clinton Morrison, Hayden Mullins.
Not Used: None.

Huddersfield Town: Nico Vaesen, Thomas Heary, Jamie Vincent, Lee Richardson, Craig Armstrong, John Dyson (? Mattis 38), Simon Baldrey, Rob Edwards, Marcus Stewart (Delroy Facey 44), Wayne Allison, Ben Thornley (David Beresford 75).
Not Used: None.

Attendance: 17,282
Referee: Mr A Bates (Stoke-On-Trent).