Crystal Palace - 0
Huddersfield Town - 0

In a match played in the rain, making it a most miserable occasion for the 15,000+ fans that turned out, the team, unfortunately, gave us nothing to really cheer about. Although a point was gained from the match it was more a matter of the other two points that got away. It is, of course, a point closer to retaining our First Division status this term, and for this we should be grateful, but given any little bit of luck we could have been celebrating a position far safer up the table. We must keep in perspective though, that Palace always seem to find some way of making the long-suffering supporters "sweat" for a while each season, and you would think that after all these years we would by now be used to it! Unfortunately one never gets used to it, unless of course this starts to happen after the first 50 years, in which case this humble scribe has another five years or so of supporting to go! Let's hope we all have enough strength to see the team through the times ahead!

This match made two in a row that we have managed to not "leak" a goal, so once again it appears that we will have to get out on the training ground and re-teach the strikers how to get the ball in the back of the net. Let's hope they concentrate on that between now and our visit to Vicarage Road, as we will sorely need some strike power there. As long as the defence then holds on to its' recent good record we may stand a chance of taking all the points home for once - we certainly seem to be in need of them.

The first half of this match saw Palace waste chance after chance to open the scoring, and it may well be easier to tell you who did not have a shot at goal than name all those who did. A plus to this statement, of course, is that all the team is now "standing up" and trying their hand at slotting a few balls home - a far cry from the days when all we could write about was Clinton and Mikael. It appeared as though everything was one-way traffic, and Huddersfield did well to repel so many attacking moves. Six minutes into the match Tommy Black let fly a strike from well out of the strike zone, but his shot flew wide of the post.

David Hopkin then chipped in with a shot that Nico Vaesen did well to hold on to before Clinton Morrison missed the target. Fan Zhiyi blasted his shot over the crossbar then Mikael Forssell's effort once again went wide of the mark. A cross from Fan found Matthew Upson who really should have done better with his header from close range, but the ball went astray at the last moment. A final chance to Mikael rounded out the first period of play, and as I mentioned that is more than half the team that had made at least one attempt on goal. Maybe the other three, or four if you wish to count Alex in goal, will have their attempt in the second half?

It bears mention that Dean Gorre and Delroy Facey did have shots on goal at the other end, the first going over the top and the second producing a fine diving save from Alex Kolinko. Apart from those attempts though Alex was basically redundant between the posts.

The second period of play brought great shots from both Clinton and Mikael, but the keeper was in fine form, and kept the raiding forwards out. Clinton then got on the end of a Dean Austin pass, but he fired wide of the post. Simon Rodger then got in the act, his shot going millimetres wide of the mark yet again. Matthew then had another header, this time placed on target, but unfortunately the ball went straight into the waiting arms of a relieved keeper. David once again fired wide - why don't we make those posts just a little wider? - and just as we were forgetting that there were two teams out there Facey headed wide when Alex was wrong-footed on the line.

Mikael then hit a shot over the top of the crossbar, but as the dying moments of the game arrived all Palace fans were on their feet as Clinton was allowed to be onside by a clever move, and with only the keeper to beat a goal looked certain. In a purely reflex save he somehow managed to keep the ball out, and thus ensure that the Terriers went away with a share of the spoils that they scarcely deserved. They may just have deserved this result based on their keeper's "match-winning" performance, but on a strike ratio it would appear that they are going to have great difficulty keeping the better placed teams out.

As for Palace, if we can start slotting a few of these "half chances" in to the back of the net, as we were doing earlier in the season, at the same time keeping up our recently improved record of keeping the opposition out, then a slightly more comfortable finish to the season looks a distinct possibility.

As has seemed to be the case after the last couple of matches Alan Smith failed to talk to the media after the match, and it was left to Mikael to bemoan the fact that the team were unable to put away any of the chances that presented themselves, and to Aki to publicly state that with four points, and two clean sheets from the last two games there is "no way" that Palace will go down this season. Let's hope that he is right!

Colin Pryce

Crystal Palace: Alex Kolinko, Dean Austin, Craig Harrison, Matthew Upson, Fan Zhiyi, Simon Rodger, Tommy Black (Andrejs Rubins 81), David Hopkin, Aki Riihilahti, Clinton Morrison, Mikael Forssell.

Substitutes not used: Wayne Carlisle, Gregg Berhalter, Ricardo Fuller, Kenny Verhoenen.

Huddersfield Town: Nico Vaesen, Steve Jenkins, Thomas Heary, Chris Armstrong, Chris Lucketti, Dean Gorre, Lee Morris (Jim Brennan 80), Simon Baldry (Kenny Irons 63), Jon Dyson, Delroy Facey (Kevin Gallen 87), Andy Booth.

Substitutes not used: Martyn Margetson, Adie Moses.

Attendance: 15,324

Referee: Mr R Harris (Oxford)