Sheffield United - 1 (Morris 89.)
Crystal Palace - 1 (Petric 10.)

With the possibility of the Club entering receivership or administration tomorrow, the performance that the side put up was very good. In fact we almost won the match, once again allowing the opposition to score right at the death. If we could only find some way of having two keepers for the last 10 minutes of a match we could possibly turn a few of these draws into wins. Somehow I doubt that the FA would allow that sort of substitution though!

Not a lot seemed to happen in the opening exchanges of this match, but it came to life at the 10 minute mark when from 30 yards out Gordan Petric let loose a fierce drive which went straight past Alan Kelly before he had a chance to realise what was happening. The shot was somewhat reminiscent of the shots that Deano used to make. Almost immediately Shaun Derry made a good move that almost netted him a goal, but Kevin Miller was alert to the danger and made a fine diving save. Halfway through the period of play Gordan almost repeated his previous strike, this effort going fractionally over the top of the bar. Just before the break Wayne Quinn saw his free kick go just wide of the mark, and the whistle went to signify the end of the half.

The second half almost gave us a doubling of the lead when Clinton Morrison put a beautiful ball through to Hayden Mullins, but somehow he managed to put the ball high and wide of the goal. Petric then tried another attempt from long distance, this time his 30 yard thunderbolt hitting the bar and falling safely for the home team. A final free kick to United saw Miller once again making an amazing save from Paul Devlin's shot, but the ball got free of his grasp and Lee Morris was on hand to steer the ball into the back of the net. The score was 1-1, and it appeared that there was no time left for any more action. Of course there was time for just one more thing to happen. Steve Thomson managed to get himself booked for the second time in the match and was duly sent off! With no time left now, the referee signified the end of the game. Why, oh why could he not have done that just a few seconds earlier?

Colin Pryce

Sheffield United: Alan Kelly, David Holdsworth, Lee Sandford, Shaun Derry, Bobby Ford, Ian Hamilton (Michael Twiss 79), Wayne Quinn, Curtis Woodhouse, Paul Devlin, ? Marcelo, Lee Morris.
Not Used: Not Known.

Crystal Palace: Kevin Miller, Craig Moore, Hayden Mullins, Gordan Petric, Jamie Smith, Dave Tuttle, Craig Foster (Steve Thomson 46), Simon Rodger, Sun Jihai, Fan Zhiyi (Leon McKenzie 68), Clinton Morrison.
Not Used: Steve Evans.

Attendance: 12,896
Referee: Mr G Laws (Whitely Bay).