Portsmouth - 2 (Mills 45. Tiler 87.)
Crystal Palace - 4 (Forssell 18. Riihilahti 25. Freedman 45. 52.)
The sacking of Alan Smith, and his assistant Ray Houghton, was greeted with glee by the majority of the Palace faithful, but who was Simon Jordan going to get to take up the reins for these eventful last two matches?
In stepped scout Steve Kember, who last managed Palace 20 years ago, and incidentally saved them from demotion that time, but with only two games to go it was going to take a small miracle to turn things round. He managed to do that in a very impressive fashion, and a similar result to this at Stockport on Sunday could just mean that we will live to fight another day. We will all be cheering the side on.
Good luck Steve! Go, Stevie Kember's Red and Blue Army!!
Palace started this match full of running, and in truth they never really let up until the result was beyond doubt. As early as two minutes we forced a corner, and with Wayne Carlisle looking after the left side of the field, he sent in a cross from the flag that Gregg Berhalter rose to meet, but the defence managed to turn the ball away from its' target. Ex-Palace player Jamie Vincent then put in a smart cross for Lee Mills, but his shot went wide of the goalmouth.
Things then seemed to settle down for a while until the quarter hour mark, when Hayden Mullins saw his shot well saved by Aaron Flahaven, putting the ball over the top. The corner that followed fell to Dean Austin, who headed towards the goal, his shot going marginally over the top. One can be fairly sure that the header must have hurt Deano slightly, as he had just returned from having stitches in his head following an accidental clash a few minutes before!
Shortly after this though Palace did finally manage to do something right, and a good cross from Hayden found Mikael Forssell, whose first time shot from close range sailed into the back of the net and we were 1-0 up. The job was only partly done though, and just seven minutes later we took another step towards safety. Clinton Morrison made a good solo run before crossing to the centre. Aki Riihilahti found himself unmarked, and duly headed the ball into the back of the goal to register his first Palace goal since joining the Club. To say he was ecstatic would be a fair understatement. It was now Finland, sorry Palace, 2-0
Lee Sharpe then tried a long-range shot, which Alex Kolinko saved with ease, but then Portsmouth applied a little pressure of their own, testing Alex firstly by Mills, and then by Carl Tiler. Both were somehow kept out, and it looked as if we had weathered the storm before the half time break, and would go in holding a two-goal advantage.
In stoppage time a testing shot was fired straight at Alex, and though he kept it out he dropped the ball, and Mills managed to scramble it home. A lot of "one-eyed" Palace supporters would attest that the ball never crossed the line, but despite the defence scrambling the ball away the referee awarded the "goal", and in fairness I think it may just have crossed the line at one point in its' agonising roll on the line, into the upright, and back along the line again! The Pompey supporters had not even managed to regain their seats though before their cheers, and hopes, were dashed immediately from the restart. The ball found Dougie Freedman, and making room for himself to the left of goal he deceived the keeper with a well taken shot across the goal and into the back of the net to restore our two goal lead. Without further ado the whistle signalled the end of the first part of the proceedings, and one can be sure that Steve would have been urging his players on to produce more of the same in the second half.
Not a lot changed at the start of play, and it was still Palace that were pushing forward, and looking the more likely to score. Six minutes into this period Clinton managed to get clear on the left and Dougie timed his run to perfection to meet the cross in to the centre and head it home from short range. That made two goals for Dougie, four for Palace, and only one to Portsmouth.
Unfortunately Palace then seemed to finally take their foot off the pedal, and the rest of the match passed in a fairly pedestrian manner. Alex proved his worth to the side by cutting out a couple of half-chances from Michael Panopoulos and Tiler, but we went just a little bit too much off the boil. Tiler once again came forward for a corner, and he got on the end of the ball, his header ending up in the back of the net once more.
The game was over though, and Palace had achieved their objective by winning by the prescribed two-goal margin (three would have been better guys!), and they managed to lift themselves out of the relegation zone, and coincidentally put Portsmouth in that position for the first time this season.
Kember was naturally delighted with the result, but Graham Rix kept his players locked up in the shed for 45 minutes after the game had ended. The biggest crowd for the season at Fratton Park had not delivered the goods for the home side, and they now face Barnsley on Sunday as we face Stockport, knowing they have to do better than us to maintain their First Division status. Huddersfield and Grimsby will also be looking over their shoulders at the two teams behind them.
Colin Pryce
Portsmouth: Aaron Flahaven, Linvoy Primus, Scott Hiley, Carl Tiler, David Waterman (Michael Panopoulos 54), Kevin Harper, Gary O'Neil, Lee Sharpe, Jamie Vincent, Lee Mills (Luke Nightingale 54), Lee Bradbury.
Substitutes not used: Chris Tardif, Jason Crowe, Steve Lovell.
Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Hayden Mullins, Gregg Berhalter, Dean Austin, Jamie Smith, Steve Thomson, Wayne Carlisle (Steve Evans 88), Aki Riihilahti, Clinton Morrison, Dougie Freedman, Mikael Forssell.
Substitutes not used: Matthew Gregg, Tommy Black, Sean Hankin, Craig Harrison.
Attendance: 19,013
Referee: Mr P Richards (Preston)