West Ham United - 3 (Defoe 19. Mellor 31. 55.)
Crystal Palace - 0

Palace were never going to be rated a very good chance to win this match, but considering the recent run of results we definitely needed at least a point from the encounter. As things proved, this was not to be, and hopefully we have now got our worst result of the season out of the way.

Palace kicked off in the first half, and as Jamie Smith pushed the ball forward Dougie Freedman was caught marginally offside. Michael Hughes played the ball through to Shaun Derry, his cross finding Neil Shipperley, his header going meekly to the side of the post, when he really should have done so much better. Jermain Defoe tried a long range shot that was competently held by Cedric Berthelin in the Palace goal, and shortly after Dougie was again given offside as Andy Johnson played him in. The Palace faithful will tell you the decision was wrong, but I bet the Hammers supporters won't.

Hayden Mullins did well to clear the ball as Neil Mellor looked to pounce, and then David Connolly placed an easy header into the back of the net, only to see the flag raised, and the "goal" disallowed. Cedric then cut out a long ball from Matthew Ethrington, which was meant for Mellor, then it was the turn of AJ to be caught offside. Michael had a cross knocked back by Neil that Shaun fired into the top of the net.

Aki Riihilahti sent a header goalwards that David James did well to tip over the bar, but the corner was wasted as Darren Powell was penalised for a foul in the area. West Ham then went ahead as Michael played a pass back to Cedric, the keeper totally missing the ball, and Defoe slipped quietly in to simply tap the ball home to give the home side the lead. Maybe it was against the run of play, but it is always dangerous to give such a high flying team an easy way to take the lead - they are almost bound to capitalise on it, and the floodgates are likely to open.

Mellor was caught offside before Darren cut out a cross from Defoe that looked somewhat dangerous. Hayden got a pass in to Dougie, and as he got clear of the defence he sent his shot just wide of the post. A goal there might have made all the difference. AJ was brought down in the box, but the referee waved play on before Defoe hit a great drive that gave us a moment of panic as Cedric needed two attempts to hang on to the ball.

Moments later though Ethrington crossed the ball